Pre-Election Fatigue

Since I started my job, the television sets in the break-rooms have all been tuned to CNN, all day, every day, without a break. I wonder if someone will turn the channel, maybe, after the election. I am not sure if this is the custom or borne of necessity; satisfying the news-addicted selves that many of us have become. Nevertheless, every time you get water, coffee, prepare your breakfast and/or lunch, there is one of them talking, Obama, McCain, Palin and sometimes Biden; his rallies get the least coverage.

When I come home, we have the news on, with a little more flexibility in that we flip through all the news channels, listening to all the pontification on the election as if it is a sporting event; the play by play with all of the obvious commentary and conclusions batted about with authority. The all-knowing pundits making fools of themselves especially those sincerely defending the erratic actions of the McCain/Palin campaign; so dark, so extreme the comedy. But now, I have to say, I am absolutely sick of it!

Today, as I was in the kitchen and Obama was on, a co-worker commented that he was just as "dirty as the rest of them," and he was not saying anything new; it was the same old yadda yadda that he's been hearing for weeks, no months, probably a year at least. Before I go on I must interject, why do citizens expect impeccable behavior from politicians when the nature of the beast dictates that you have to get your hands dirty to succeed? It is a necessary evil if you want to survive; serving the people sometimes means subverting the people in order to continue to serve the people.

No politician can be pristine yet the expectation of some kind of morale facade is deeply rooted in the election process. And, for the duration of said election cycle, the politicians sling mud at each other while we all pat ourselves on the back resplendent in our candidate's ability to take a moral highground just a little higher than the opponent's. Satisfactory. Job well done. And if not, what he or she should or should not have said with the same jawboning of an academic exercise. Filler. Commercial. Filler. Flip the Channel.

Anyhow, I digress. I deftly steered my co-worker to some non-partisan websites and explained that one can separate the stump from the message and when you dig deep into the message you get a different picture of the candidates that will clarify all the sound-bites. After he conceded that I was right about Obama, he happily went on and I happily scored another one for the cause. But, I couldn't help that he was right about the elections season overload. I am starting to turn away from all the noise; not just me, many of us are now suffering from pre-election fatigue, all wanting the election to be over, to be done with the incessant partisan rant and to be happy that we have elected a better President than what we now.

So tonight, I found TiVo again and tried to reclaim some connection to the fall TV season. What, 6 episodes behind on Mad Men? I've got a lot of catching up to do.