The conventions are over.

So let's get over the self serving BS.

Both conventions definitely lived up to their expectations; they were huge rounds of people patting themselves on the back for being amazingly great. Awesome. So maybe now we can move on and actually have an election.

The candidates have an almost identical message:

"I am a person of change coming to Washington to shake up the status quo and cross party lines. Also I will save you money."

Yeah, I think we get that much. Since both of them are saying essentially the same thing it actually makes it much easier to choose between them. The main thing that we have learned from the past two weeks of self congratulation from both parties is that these candidates really should make the decision process very straightforward for any of the undecideds. All one has to do is look at a issue comparison chart, and there is your answer.

Obviously, I lean heavily to the Left. I disagree to a lesser or greater extent with almost every single one of John McCain's stances on any given issue. For me, there was never really a big question as to who I would vote for. At worst, Obama might lose my vote to the Green Party candidate, but even that seems unlikely as they don't have a strong platform this year.

Still, I'm very interested to see the debates this year. I thought that the debates between Gore and Bush were just boring, and the debates between Kerry and Bush were painful to watch. These debates should be very interesting. Both candidates are expressing their respect for one another pretty early, so I have hope that they will be civil discussions of the issues, without a lot of mudslinging. I guess that is not very likely, but it would be nice to see them act like a couple of adults who realize that they both want to do good for the country, and simply have different ways of going about that.

(keep dreamin')

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