The 2008 Presidental Election: The Most Dumbed-Down Ever!

I couldn't start a political blog right now without bringing up the donkey in the room: Barack Obama's historic win. Obviously, I didn't vote for the guy and I can't stand him. I don't want to talk about all my reasons for not liking him right. What I want to talk about is people's reaction to him and their subsequent votes for him. Thing is, I just don't get it. I think that this has got to be the most dumbed down election in a long, long time.

I'll have to give it Obama: Never before has a canidate ridden to the White House on a campaign so devoid of issues and substance. It was all about change, after all. When I logged onto my facebook after election day, all of my 20-something peers were all ga-ga about change coming. Anything else other than Obama's message of change was trashed. Any questions about his past was negative campaigning. Any talk of policy was partisan politics. The end result was a mass of hypnotized voters.

Need Proof? How many times was Sarah Palin assailed for not having enough experience to be Vice President? Well, she has has as much executive experience to be Vice President as Obama has to be president. At least she was a leader of something (Alaska) for a couple of years. Obama didn't even complete four years in the senate (and half of those years were spent campaigning for president). That didn't matter to Obama voters.

This one might be a stretch back into the past but it proves a point just the same. In 2000, the press pop-quizzed Governor George W Bush, asking him who the president of Pakistan was. Since he didn't know, they used this to say that he didn't have enough foreign policy experience. Fast forward to 2008 and Obama, during the campaign, claims that the War in Iraq is hurting the war effort in Afghanistan because it's causing a shortage of Arabic translators. One problem: They don't speak Arabic in Afghanistan (Afghan Persian, Dari and pashto mostly, FYI)

California, of all states, put gay marriage on the ballot in their state. Half voted that it should be illegal. They also voted for gay marriage-loving Obama. Huh?

52% of the United States voted for a guy who believes that the Constitution is too restrictive. Is the irony of the fact that this guy will put his hand on the bible and swear to uphold and protect the constitution on January 20?

Howard Stern takes the cake though. He sent one of his guys out on the street with instructions to ask people on the street about Obama's stances. The only thing was, he passed off McCain's stances as Obama's. These people voting for Obama didn't know the difference and voiced support for them anyway!

The only good thing that I can say about Obama is this: Since he hypnotized well over half of my state, I didn't have to chose the lesser of two evils. Voting for McCain (who I dislike) was kind of pointless because I knew he had no chance of winning Vermont. So, I was able to vote my conscience and not feel like I was throwing away my vote.