That One ... My Friends

I remember a Nike ad with Charles Barkley from many years ago. In it, he remarked ...

"I am not a role model".

Well, I am going to do my own ad ... and in it I will remark -

"I am not a friend of John".

In last night's Presidential debate, Senator McCain used this phrase 24 times in a 90 minute period. Everything ended or started in "my friends". According to my Canadian math, that would be once every 3:45. Oh, I forgot that Tom Brokaw had to spend a lot of time getting them both to follow the time rules - so let's subtract at least 5 minutes for that ... and I am sure there must be a couple of minutes of total time to actually have the audience ask the questions. So, let's call it seven minutes to take off the 90 minute total. Given that we would assume that his air time was half of the debate at most, this amounts to one utterance every 1:44.

Think of that for a moment. Yes, surely I am not the only one that found that annoying and downright patronizing.

Speaking of patronizing - I'll put one more thought out there before I give up on the second debate. To point at your opponent, a fellow senator, and state "that one" with a glare and a finger point - well, that to me seems a tad ... rude. yes, they both threw around "he said this" and "he did that" - it's election time, surprise surprise. But to gesture and state "that one" - again, perhaps it's only me, but I found it a little ... rude. That's not a behavior that I would expect from a presidential candidate.

This whole election deal reminds me of the feeling I have when training for a big event. You get to a point about three or four weeks out when you feel like you've done all you need to do and you're just ready to get the race over and done with. Of course, that's also the time when you start decreasing your training as the event approaches so that your body can be fully recovered prior to the event.

This election campaign is at that stage for me. Can we get on with this election tomorrow?

And the part that drives me crazy about all of this? It's that in my eyes, it's not a struggle between Democrats and Republicans - it's about finding the right person, be they blue or red or green or whatever party color - that can lead this great country forward and at least get us heading in the right direction globally. I guess that's all I am really asking for now.