It's all politics.

So I'm a bit ashamed to say that I know relatively little about the upcoming presidential race. I consider myself a responsible American so I believe I should be paying more attention to what's been going on. My big problem is that, every time I try to read about the candidates, I run into so much propoganda, mud-slinging, and double-talk, that I get frustrated and give up. Can't one of these guys just say what they think and leave the shots at the other guy out of it?

Here's a blurb I got off of John Kerry's website, referring to his plan for the economy:

Make Washington Live Within A Budget

John Kerry will cut the deficit in half during his first four years in office. He will end corporate welfare as we know it, roll back the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, and impose a real cap to keep spending in check. And when John Kerry puts forward a new idea, he'll tell you how he's going to pay for it.

I love that final sentence. As if this wasn't prooganda enough, there had to be an allegation in there that while Kerry will tell you everything, Bush is going to hide things from you. Yay Kerry! Boo Bush!

GAH!

And don't get me started on this whole attack on John Kerry's war record. What total garbage that seems to be. This group of people that, as far as I know, didn't even serve with Kerry have started claiming that Kerry's military record is garbage. His medals were fraudulent and he ducked out of the war as soon as he could. (Of course, let's not forget that these people are funded by some rather wealthy Republicans.) Meanwhile, the Bush administration won't endorse the attacks, but they won't put a stop to them, either. Apparently, any way to win is fine.

GAH AGAIN!

So anyway, I've been struggling to learn about the candidates while trying not to go insane from the bias. However, anyone that cares enough to write about politics cares enough to have an opinion about who the better candidate it. Therefore, everything you read seems to be one sided.

Well, I was talking about the election with a friend of mine and she sent me a link to a website:

http://www.presidentmatch.com/Main.jsp2?cp=main

The site takes you through a bunch of pages of questions and asks you how you feel about various issues (everything from abortion to gays in the military to economic policy). It doesn't take long and, in the end, it gives you a percentage that shows you how well your responses stack up against the opinions of the candidates.

That was all good and it really only reinforced what I already thought about the candidates, but I did find one part to be very enlightening. Rather than going through the whole questionnaire, you can simply see how their views compare to one another, side by side. (I'd recommend doing the questionnaire first to keep your responses from being biased.) In an effort to not bias anyone before doing this (in case anyone does), I won't say anything further. I'll just say that it was "eye-opening."

Well, enough about politics. Here's hoping that we make it through this election without Armageddon breaking out. Cheers, all.

Peace. I'm out.
Corey