Commentary: This year's collection of candidates is insulting

Commentary: This year's collection of candidates is insulting
By Frida Ghitis | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Monday, November 1, 2010

Over the years, I have had the opportunity to meet brave individuals fighting for democracy in many lands.

I talked to women in Kuwait who for years fought what seemed like an endless and futile struggle - but ultimately proved a successful quest - for the right to vote. I have encountered Burmese people in and out of that desperate country, yearning for release from a brutal military tyranny. I have met men and women in Tibet whose Chinese rulers might imprison them for as little as owning a picture of their preferred leader, the Dalai Lama.

~snip~

Perhaps the hard economic times bear the blame for the strange, almost surreal turn the midterm election took in the United States. At a time of crisis, I had naively expected a mature democracy to produce serious candidates with bright, creative, responsible ideas.

Instead, the electoral circus offers a veritable menagerie of weirdness. Admittedly, the candidates include some highly amusing characters. It would be easy to sit back and enjoy the show. Except that the outrageous, idiotic and plainly strange ones have already made it so far in their races that they have diminished the level of the conversation. At a time when Americans should be hearing an intelligent discussion about the difficult decisions ahead, we are treated to what in many cases amounts to an insulting collection of candidates.

The New York Times' Gail Collins has chronicled the developments hilariously, holding an unwinnable contest to decide "which state is having the most appalling campaign season." Was it South Carolina, where the mysterious Democratic candidate for the Senate promises to create jobs by having the unemployed make action figures of his likeness? Is it the Aqua Buddha debate in Kentucky, the "I'm not a witch" candidate in Delaware? The list is depressingly long, and a number of readers complained that Collins had ignored their state's outrageous race.

This year they were a little more daring, tipping over into vaudeville, more or less. Probably good on balance for the Dems. Some otherwise doomed Dem candidates will likely survive.

McCain/Palin for President and VP? Really? Who here thinks either of them is even remotely qualified for the job?

Yet the media seemed to think they would present a real challenge for the Democrats, right up untill is became clear ther woulde never get close - then all the media "experts" revealed how they (secretly) believed the Dems would win all along...I expect much of the same late Tuesday night and Wednesday after the GOP does worse than "expected" by the same bucn of assholes...pardon me, experts.


Bullshit rules in the US media - I have found it a revelation to watch the news on BBCA - they still have REAL NEWS!


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