Politics. Wow. What is there to say that www.dailykos.com, atrios.blogspot.com and www.talkingpointsmemo.com haven’t gotten to already? Or that doesn’t have to do with me being really, really sad about the state of ignorance among most of the American public when it comes to analyzing the veracity of the candidate’s claims? The fact that Rove’s smear tactics, and the repetition of talking points over the course of the last few months has had any negative impact on Kerry is quite disheartening, but I suppose it’s counterbalanced by the fact that at least at this point in the cycle, the momentum is on his side. Given that Bush is an incumbent, and nothing he says is going to surprise anyone at this point (except for “We’ve captured Osama bin Laden,”) things seem to be in Kerry’s favor. The exposure from the debates has won over some of the undecided, and hopefully, Friday, he’ll continue to do so.

There was an article on www.salon.com about a person who’d gone out to volunteer for the Get Out the Vote efforts in Pittsburgh, and their conclusion was that undecided voters were “simple, honest” types who voted with their gut, and that they were the “demo” in a democracy. I wrote them a letter basically telling them they were full of shit. I can kind of imagine someone being undecided, legitimately, given the media’s coverage of Kerry’s side of things. Maybe they haven’t heard enough. But to say that if someone votes from their “gut” or “just because they like the guy,” doesn’t make them simple, or honest – it makes them stupid. It makes them gullible tools of the marketing machine. They don’t know Bush, or Kerry, they simply know the image that’s been presented to the public. Voting on a “gut” feeling about something like that is just a horrific abdication of one’s responsibility as a citizen in this country.

Bleah.

Even the well intentioned, sometimes, can be pretty damned stupid.