I am not alone!!!

It is not in my nature to be completely swayed by the spinning heads in the back room of a political forum, but after Thursday night's Vice Presidential debate I wondered if I had seen a completely different debate than those who make their living commenting on such events.  I saw two space-shot candidates; one whose priority was to prove that she can speak in complete sentences, regardless of relevance to the topic at hand (hmmm... was a winning strategy in the past two elections) and the other who parsed his words so much to show that he is not in anyway looking down on a candidate that thoroughly deserves to be looked down upon (I need Jed Bartlet, circa season three in here STAT).  The former was completely void of gravitas but terrifyingly assured of her superiority; the latter looked like he was suppressing his gravitas under his ubiquitous grin while avoiding any nod in the direction of his opponent's quite apparent inferiority. 

Yet, in hearing the pundits I started to believe that I was dead wrong.  Perhaps, I thought, my solidified views of both candidates overshadowed my ability to really WATCH the debate, maybe I was simply seeing what I wanted to see.

And then I rode the commuter rail the next day.  

The commuter rail tends to attract a segment of the population that limits interaction to, "Can I sit there?",  "Did you see the Sox game last night?", or "Tickets, please!".  I, along with the majority of the riding population tend to bury my head in my book, alternated with sneaking peaks over the top of said book to people watch and deliberate what offices allow its employees to wear THAT (!).   

But, Friday's commuter rail ride was a virtual Roman Forum of politics.  Things overheard include:

- She didn't mess up, but she didn't really SAY anything.  

- Why did she keep winking?  It was weird.

- She reminded me of my girlfriend. My girlfriend always tells me to stop bringing up the past and I'm always like, Dude, I've just started to absorb the past.

- "I can't believe you watched that." Person A.  "Are you kidding?! Do you know how much is at stake?" Person B (Blogger, silently, 'YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS')

And, thus, my 'man on the street (well, train)' survey  has proven my gut instincts right and made me feel less alone in this crazy pre-presidential atmosphere.