STRAIGHT TALK

WOW! Has it really been two years since I entered this world of personal opinion? Yet, besides my little introduction I have not been able to come up with anything original or exciting that would make me sound so adoring.

So forgive me for my absence, as for now – at least for the short term – I am back. Why you ask? Well it’s the time in the political cycle that it seems everyone has opinions. You have Journalists, analysts, columnists, bloggers, talking points and what not. Everyone throwing their thoughts in the ring hoping that it will be their take that will sway an election one way or another.

While everyone analyses and digs deep, one thing they haven’t realized is most people don’t think very deep. While the media microscopes each and every word or story, the people they are trying to sell everything to just take things at face value and see things as they really are.

You watch the news, read the papers and every commentator will tell you what they think a candidate has to do or say in order to get ahead. One will tell you in order for candidate X to win tonight’s debate he must say this while another expert will tell you advice of the contrary. Expectations are risen and lowered so that that same commentator can declare his favorite the winner. Should candidates actually try to follow this advice they’ll end up debating themselves for an entire campaign cycle (thou it seems many of them do).

This brings me to politicians and campaigns.
The problem with political campaigns and politicians is that you have a team of “smart” people who try to go into people’s heads and figure out what would be the best way to portray a particular message. How would the media react and how will it have the most powerful effect. They’ll arrange long meetings and spend hours with focus groups figuring out the best way to tell us that its going to rain tonight worried at what might happen if the sun might forget to go down today and there wont even be a “tonight” and will end up having a tomorrow that’s still today. Then how do you explain that?

I have been following the presidential election since the start of the primaries. Many times while watching debates, rallies or media interviews with candidates or their surrogates have I been shouting at the TV with single lines I thought the person should say that would hit a home run.

I am not a journalist nor am I a professional writer. In fact I have never studied journalism and have never written anything before. I don’t expect my writings on this blog to be read by many, and even if it is I don’t think anyone would listen to me. But if there are any independents out there or people who want to hear what simple people out there think. I herby give you my straight talk.