Reasons for exhaustion -
- Apart from the horrors of Hurricane Sandy, there is nothing else on the news. You'd never think that Syria was burning itself to the ground, or that there were any other countries on the planet for that matter.
- The negative campaigning, at all levels, starts off being annoying and then becomes plain depressing. Not only is there a Presidential election going on, we have local elections for everything from state representatives to circuit judges. They're all bombarding us with political ads, most of which never mention the actual candidate that's running but just slag off* their opponent. I've decided that, in the spirit of "truth in advertising" if you don't actually mention yourself in your political ads, you can't run them. (*Slag off = British term meaning to insult or talk down.)
- The total and outrageous waste of money. At this point, both Presidential candidates are fighting for about 5% of undecided voters; everyone else has made their mind up and won't be changing it unless one of the candidates starts acting like Donald Trump. The numbers they are raising from donors is staggering - and shameful given the poverty in this country and in the rest of the world. They're talking about cutting wasteful government spending, and dreaming up ways to reduce the deficit, when each of them has raised enough to balance the sodding budget ten times over. In July 2012 the fund-raising on both sides had surpassed $1 billion. Just think what that money could really do.
- Voting problems - we've had problems with voter ID requirements, which many claim would disenfranchise those who currently don't have a driver's license or other photo ID; then we had big fights about keeping polls open later in the day so that people who actually had to work could vote after their workday; now we have massive queues/lines at early places in Florida and of course, the problems just being able to physically vote when either your house or your voting station has been decimated by Sandy. No doubt some or all of these issues will be cited as the reason why the loser loses tomorrow.
- Lies, damn lies - this is what is most tiresome. You can almost hear the words being taken out of context, and yet it goes on. Even as most of the networks now have fact checkers who immediately blast the candidates for outrageous and egregious claims, it doesn't seem to stop the politicians.
- Disrespect - I've just heard an ad on TV as I write, where Mitt Romney tells the President to take his campaign of "..division and anger and hate..." back to Chicago. Really? Since when has it been OK to accuse your opponent of all that? (See below where one Romney supporter calls Obama a "dishonorable man" too.)
- Oh, and this type of uninformed idiot has had far too much airtime in my opinion. Seriously - I'm living with these people....
If you listen all the way to the end, it gets so ridiculous it makes you either laugh or cry.