The truth is that people don't watch presidential or vice presidential debates to make up their minds about who they're going to vote for. Please. Nobody watches it to get more informed on the issues, none of that. The supposed "undecided" voters the networks always round up beforehand are so fake. Acting like you "undecided" so you can get on CNN. Sitcho self down.
It's a pure style contest. Who's got it, who doesn't. Who looks "presidential," who doesn't. (How do you look presidential? If you're the president, don't you technically look presidential by definition?) We don't want to hear facts and figures. Nawl. We want to hear gaffes so we have fodder for parody Twitter accounts. We want to hear zingers to inspire us to create memes to spread through the Facebook ranks like wildfire. We want to see blood drawn. We want a political cage match so that we can say who crushed who.
Yes, I am criticizing this behavior because it shows how an arena as crucial as politics has been reduced to theater. Though that's nothing new, it's still striking to me that even in the face of domestic and world crises, we still want our show. Here we are now, entertain us.
I'm guilty of it. I am. I will admit that I'm looking forward to ol' Mad Dog Uncle Joe Biden bringing the crazy on Thursday. I'm sure his handlers have him on lock, so he won't be totally off the chain, but I will admit that I hope some craziness will slip out. I don't really know what to make of Paul Ryan other than that his budget is whack. But he looks like a sad-eyed, hangdog pup wanting to be nurtured. There's a tiny part of me that wants to bake him chocolate chip cookies and read him Curious George stories.
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