From: Gene McAloon 

On Mon, 30 Aug 2004 12:46:20 -0700, Alan Cairns  wrote:

>It all represents an incredible trivialization of politics. There are real,
>and HUGE issues needing discussion.
>
>Politics is dead.

On the contrary, politics is alive and well. It is always the case when the
race is close that both candidates say little that is definitive. In close
races it is the fickle so-called independent voter who determine the
outcome and both candidates are reluctant to say anything that might offend
anyone in that group. I have never known it to be otherwise.

Even when there are political debates and there is some real content,
nobody pays much attention. The Kennedy/Nixon debates for example. Those
who listened to them on radio gave the edge to Nixon; those who watched
them on TV gave Kennedy the edge. But the reality is that few, very few
people were swayed one way or the other.

Those who are into the big questions thing already know where the
candidates stand and debates will have no affect on them. Again, it is the
switchers who decide most elections and those kinds of people are too often
one issue types or they makes decisions on the basis of whether one man
looks bad because he didn't shave just prior to the appearance. Most of
them don't know what the big questions are and mostly couldn't care less.

That is politics and it is what we are seeing this time around just as we
always have in the past.

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