Enough to Make a Grown Man Cry

I can understand why people who do politics for a living become cynical and crazy. This morning the Washington Post interviewed one likely Iowa voter, Wendy, who teaches seventh grade. She is torn between -- get this -- Obama and Giuliani -- Which is a little like saying you cannot decide if you are a Mets fan or a Yankees fan. She said she cannot vote for Edwards because he "has too much on his plate" with his wife's cancer. She cannot vote for Clinton because, "I don't like her 'stand-by-your-man kind of girl who rides on her husband's coattails just to become president' thing. Maybe if she would have gotten a divorce and done everything for herself I would have thought about it."

I think it would drive a sane man crazy to try to talk sense into people like Wendy. Its like she is deciding who she wants in her 7th Grade "Best Friends 4 Life, " club not who should be leader of the United States.

I suppose it is worse for the candidates. Whether Democrat or Republican these are all highly accomplished, sophisticated people, who-- whether you agree with them or not -- have shown their ability to get from point A to point B without tripping on their feet. Yet every mouthbreather with a high school education and an address in their mom's basement gets to pass judgement on how they look, act, and live their life, whether they are married or divorced, whether their wife or husband seems nice, whether they seem to have a nice family, and every other little inconsequential detail. You spend years trying to win the approval of people you probably would not hire if you were starting a business, people who could not find Iran on a map, and people who think the problems with social security could be solved by taking one of those pills they advertise on TV, the ones with the happy faces. These are people who vote for the candidate who seems the most like them or makes them "feel" good, or safe or secure.

I suppose you could say that is the marvel of democracy, and to a certain extent it is, but man .... is it ugly. Isn't there something we can do to make Wendy think a little bit harder? To convince the electorate that there is a difference between electing a leader and selecting the "Who is Hot/Who is Not" list in Vanity Fair.