It’s 10 days until election day and at this point, I’m crossing each day off as another tick on my padded cell wall.  This presidential election has brought out the dumb in so many otherwise intelligent people.  Let’s get real and judge each candidate upon who they are as individuals, what their policies would be, and their track records as elected officials.

Barack Obama is NOT:

A Communist Marxist.  He may be a socialist to a certain degree, but how many college professors AREN’T liberal socialists?  Not many. His tax plan isn’t unlike that which any other Democrat would propose.

A Terrorist.  I doubt Barack Obama  is planning to undermine the security of the United States and join forces with Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden.  Hanging around with Bill Ayres, Rev. Wright and Tony Rezko was dumb, and it showed poor judgment, but that’s all it shows.  Chicago is crawling with slimy politicians, left-leaning loonies and crooks – Obama was bound to run into a few of them.

A Muslim.  I don’t think there’s such a thing as a closeted Muslim.

The Anti-Christ. That’s just silly.

On the flip side, John McCain is NOT:

George Bush.  John McCain has a long career of being his own man.  Democrats and Independents have always admired him for his willingness to work across the aisle and stand up to his own party.  It’s not fair to conveniently forget all that now, just because he’s running for president with an (R) after his name.

On his death bed.  If McCain does win the presidency, his critics already have him arriving to his own Inauguration Day in a hearse.  He seems pretty healthy to me!

Reckless and Unstable. John McCain isn’t going to throw a temper tantrum and cause World War III.

Sarah Palin is NOT:

Stupid. Let’s face it, she was flung onto the national stage and came in as the underdog from the get-go; she was bound to flub up here and there.  However, if we compare Palin to Joe Biden, they’d make a matching set of bookends with their gaffes.

Finally, a real debate between Barack Obama and John McCain but, for me, it was an uncomfortable debate to watch.   John McCain looked frustrated and hardly able to put his frustrations into words; Barack Obama remained calm, cool, and for the most part eloquent with his words, as usual – though there were some moments where he appeared smirky and condescending.

The recent remarks by Congressman Lewis who accused the McCain/Palin rallies of “sowing the seeds of hatred” was brought up by McCain.  Obama, at least by my psychic abilities, seemed to agree with Lewis’ assessment and didn’t repudiate the remarks.  The nastiness of both campaigns was brought up and a tit for tat discussion took place, each accusing the other of being more negative than the other.  What’s new?  I’ve never seen a presidential election that didn’t get nasty.

Joe the Plumber became the running theme of the debate.  Joe, who spoke his concerns to Obama at a political rally in Ohio, questioned whether Obama’s tax plans would hurt small business.  Obama’s now infamous rationalization to Joe was that we need to “spread the wealth.”  There lies the fundamental difference between Democrats and Republicans.  “Spreading the wealth” to Republicans sounds like socialism; to Democrats it sounds like fairness to the poor and middle-class.  For once, I’d like to see a politician want to cut taxes for everyone of every tax bracket; but class warfare is a winning strategy.

Who won the debate?  Of course, Obama; all he had to do was show up.  As of today, it looks like the stars are aligned perfectly for Obama.  It seems like the election is already over and we’re just humoring ourselves with this one last debate and going out to vote on November 4th.  Let’s just hope Mickey Mouse won’t be showing up at the polls and voting 400 times.