Vote For Sale

Until just recently, I was one of the thousands, perhaps millions, of undecided voters in the United States. No, I'm not living in a vacuum, I just couldn't tell you how my vote was going to be cast for President of the United States or the Oklahoma senate seat being vacated by Don Nickles. I just didn't know.

With all of the mudslinging and dirty politics, this entire election has been not about who is best for the job but who is less worse. I hate making that kind of decision. And it's not just in the Presidential race or the senate race in Oklahoma. I was recently in Kansas City and it's there, too. It's all over the place.

So, what was going on in my mind was this... Candidate X said this - that's bad - I don't want to vote for him. Candidate Y lied about what he did 30 years ago - that's bad - I don't want to vote for him. Candidate Y says he supports this thing I support - that's good - I do want to vote for him. Candidate X says he never said that and that he's done these good things - that's good - I do want to vote for him. It has literally been back and forth like that on a day-to-day basis for quite some time now.

The good news is that I've finally made up my mind... I think. At least, my decision has stayed on the same line for more than 24 hours.

What tipped the scales? For the Presidential race, it was former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on The Daily Show. That's right, I actually made my voting decision for the next President of the United States based on an interview during a fake news show. But, you see, something she said during that interview rang true to me and nothing I have seen in any political advertisement or recent newscast has. I look at politics with a jaundiced eye and for every factoid that comes through from a candidate - about that candidate or his/her opponent - I wonder how close to the actual truth that factoid is. 54.8% of all statistics are made up on the spot and, really, if both parties can claim victory in a debate the truth behind any factoid is in how you look at it anyway, isn't it? My point is, she said something (and I'm not going to say what it was because I'm not telling you who I'm voting for - that's my business) and it had a ring of truth and, unlike many tidbits of information out there, it was something I could latch onto - so I did.

As for the senate race in Oklahoma, it was the debate on Wednesday. I didn't watch it but I watched news coverage after. Frankly, one of those guys came across to me as a psycho who seemed to be pulling information out of his a.. out of thin air. That doesn't ring true to me and he's not getting my vote. My position was later strengthened by a defensive ad by his opponent.

Politics wears me out. I'd call for a stop to negative advertisement but I know it won't do any good. Half of the battle of making yourself look good is making the other guy look bad. I mean, if you're for feeding the homeless and your opponent is not, you want people to know that.

Honestly, I don't want to vote for any of them. I think each and every political race should have a "none of the above" option. If that option wins the most votes, everyone has to go home and we start with a new batch.