Local political ad races lack creativity, unique message

Thankfully the American people will only be forcefed political advertisements for the current races for two more days.  I couldn’t be more relieved to see crappy regular commercials make their triumphant return to television.  I don’t even remember what a newscast looks or sounds like without an election going on.  Watching attack ad after attack ad not only between presidential candidates McCain and Obama, but also back and fourth between Congressional hopefuls Raul Martinez (D) and Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R) and between Mario Diaz-Balart (R) and Joe Garcia (D). Both Democrats are fighting the incumbent Republican Diaz-Balart brothers for a spot in the House of Reps in Washington representing Districts 21 and 25.

What bothers me the most isn’t having my light-hearted television interrupted by three minutes of negativity for the sake of winning an election.  The fact that these local campaigns do not bother to form their own campaign message but simply ride the coattails of any successful messages that seem to stick from the presidential campaigns makes it not only overly repetitive but pretty confusing to viewers.  McCain runs ads about Obama spreading the wealth that seemed to gain some traction with undecided voters.  Suddenly Joe Garcia was labeled a proponent of spreading the wealth around.  McCain is a Bush clone? Now so are the local Republican incumbents. It’s lazy mudslinging and the voters deserve better than that.

Undecided votes just don’t make sense

While visiting my friendly neighborhood optometrist today for my yearly eye exam, we struck up the water cooler conversation that I’m sure was taking place in every other office this morning; an analysis of last night’s presidential debate.

Immediately Dr. Heiden brought up a point that I hadn’t thought much about but that made complete sense to me.  Why the heck are there still so many undecided voters? These two candidates are so starkly different in policy plans, demeanor, personality and management style that you either like one and not the other.  There isn’t a thin line to walk here. You’re either for abortion rights or you’re against them.  You’re either for nationalized healthcare or you’re for a free-market privatized system.  You want the war to end or you think it would be, as Governor Palin says, a “white flag of surrender.”  There is a not a thin line to be drawn between the candidates differences in this year’s election.  Historically, during times of a more steady economy, no wars being fought and a general sense of overall stability, candidates from either party could more easily be mirrors of each other, aside from certain social issues that have become standard labels of each party.  It was harder to find policy differences because there had been no reason to make major policy changes.

Well if you haven’t figured it out by now, this is clearly not one of those years. It’s obvious that the country is standing at one of those pesky forks in the road that make voting so much more important (this is all stuff you’ve heard before).  The thing is, there are signs on both paths that clearly indicate where our potential leaders would like to take us.  So suck it up, educate yourself on the issues that are keeping you from choosing a candidate, and make a decision that you can live with two, three, ten years from now.

And please, PLEASE, don’t hitchhike away from the fork with a wandering lonely traveler by choosing a third-party candidate that, sadly so, will not be leading the country in January.