FOUR MORE DAYS - WILL OHIO SURVIVE?

Four more days ... and the election will arrive.  The candidates obviously consider Ohio the center of the political universe, the swing state of swing states.  Each has five stops targeted for Ohio in these remaining days.  When Sandy was on her way to the East Coast (and before the candidates decided they needed to stop campaigning for a day lest they look "unpresidential"), most of the campaign tours rerouted themselves through the Buckeye State.

Last time round Pennsylvania was a swing state, until it became solidly blue.  It still must have some swing left because the political ads are rolling across prime time at the rate of about eight an hour, but the money must be tight. The ads are the same ones over and over.

  

During the 2008 election, a friend of mine from Indiana was visiting me in Pennsylvania.  He was astounded by the volume and the vitriol of the ads.  "You wouldn't even know there was a Presidential Election back in Indiana.  We barely see an ad on TV."  He was lamenting.  I was envious.

I have done some work in Ohio this past month, spending six nights in the last 25 in the Buckeye state.  The only thing more depressing to me than these ads was the Tigers channeling the Yankees and being swept  by the Giants in the World Series.

To be honest, I have listened to so much stuff and listened to both men flip-flop so many times that I find myself thinking neither man is worthy of leading this nation.  The nation is worth more than the core values of either presidential candidate.  And each has values that I am reluctant to have them installed at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

I confess, I am thinking of simply not voting.