(Obligatory) Elections Blog Post

As I walk out of math class, I pull out to my phone check if I got any texts. None. However, I have five new e-mails. How can this be? I checked my emails during advisory, and now after second period I have five new e-mails? From whom? Nobody else but THE Barack Obama. I open it. "Dear AJ - " it starts. I know where it this is going, I think to myself - he is going to ask for yet another donation. "What else do you want from me Barack? I've donated ninety dollars of my own money and bought an Obama-Biden 2012 sweatshirt from your online store, and now you are asking for another donation?" I shrug it off as I make my way to kinetic wellness.

When I get a chance to read the 5 e-mails I received, four of which were from Democratic supporters - Joe Biden, John Kerry, Obama, and Mike Ryan - I notice that all four of them include direct ad hominum attacks on either Paul Ryan or Mitt Romney. The e-mail from Mike Ryan is a great example of this. It started with an ad hominem attack right off the bat:

"Last night, Paul Ryan brazenly lied to the country. Repeatedly."

Wait - in Mr. Ryan's speech, he said that Obama was the one lying to America and its people. If both parties accuse each other of lying about one issue, who should I trust? I decide to not worry myself about that important question, since I have hours of homework ahead of me. 

If there really are only two options in this election - Barack Obama or Mitt Romney - what will this election come down to? Each candidate's stance on the economy, or their ability to lie about the other candidate? Why is there more focus on what the other candidate will do to screw the country over, and less about the specifics of how they will help? These ad hominem attacks just won't cut it for me.This is the first election I have followed, and I now know the disgusting truth of elections - it isn't about what they say they will do as president, it is about what they say the other will do to mess up.