The talking points show

That’s how I usually refer to the Presidential “debates,” which are anything BUT debates.  (I debated competitively, and what goes on every four years is a mockery of what should be an enlightening process.)

While I’ve been extraordinarily preoccupied lately, I tuned in to the first 2/3 of the show… and immediately wished I’d taken my usual route of skipping the TV and just reading the transcript later.

Scores of political hacks will spend today trying to convince the public that one of the candidates won the debate.

My only gut reaction was “dear God, how did we come to this?”  Since the 2000 election, I’ve been amazed at the lack of substance and the inability to stay on a topic for more than 30 seconds at a time.  (I’ve also been highly annoyed with the exclusion of third party candidates, many of whom met the criteria to be on the ballot in all 50 states or very close to it.  The system is rigged.)  Someone with real plans and message discipline would wipe the floor with their opponent.

But we don’t have such a candidate.  Again.

May God preserve what’s left of this once great nation.