One Week Until Election Day

Is anyone else getting tired of all the political hoopla going on? It seems the closer we get to Election Day, the more political ads and stories there are on TV and the radio. As it is, the newspaper has had nothing else on the front page for months. Our home telephone gets calls with those annoying pre-recorded messages begging you to vote for this candidate or that ballot measure. This is especially onerous here in Oregon, where in addition to the normal candidates for office we have about a billion measures on the ballot, and each one has its own group of fervent supporters. It leaves me rather confused, because one claims to do something like "support emergency rescue personnel" (who wouldn't vote for that?) and then their opponents reveal that this "support" means a tax hike. I've come to think the people who write this political propaganda are akin to car salesmen: you know, where absolutely everybody claims to have THE best price and THE best financing on THE best car or truck or SUV or whatever.

It's not that I'm not interested in politics--I love politics; it's why I went to law school. I had every intention of working on Capitol Hill for the rest of my life until I met and married a west-coaster. ;) I just don't like all the drama, I guess.

The electoral college is a brilliant creation and one can't help but admire our voting system. Sometimes I do think, however, that a few changes would make the presidential election process much less unpleasant for the rest of us.

Couldn't we just devise an examination that tests all president-ly-ish sort of subjects and declare that whoever scores highest is the winner? I mean, doctors take Boards and attorneys take the Bar, so why shouldn't the President take a test too? Or better yet, another reality TV show: "The Apprentice: Oval Office Edition." The winner works for the current president and then succeeds to the presidency when the former president's term is up.

Here's another idea: make it against the law for candidates to speak prior to the election. They could only communicate with written words and hand gestures. Heh, John Edwards would have a hard time with that one. :-p

Ya know one thing I'd really like is to see them all take a logic test. Hah! They might all fail that one. ;) For that matter, I'd like to see a lot of people take a logic test (Michael Moore comes to mind).

Maybe a simple IQ test would really be all we need. Anyone scoring below 80 is automatically disqualified. Oh wait, nope, never mind, the democrats would keep demanding a recount. . .

Okay, time for me to stop trying to solve the world's problems and go find my handy-dandy, excessively complicated, Oregonian vote-by-mail ballot. *grin*

For all you people in non-vote-by-mail states, DON'T FORGET TO VOTE ON NOVEMBER 2ND! :-D