From Buzz Machine

Character is a proxy for morality and morality is a proxy for religion and religion mixed with government always scares me.

Got that? A person's measure of character means government sponsored religion.

I respect Jeff in many ways, but lately he's so busy trying to spike the whole Swifties phenomenon that he has started to really slide on my respect scale. Here he's trying to argue that a person's character is irrelevant to electing them. If we were a pure democracy, I'd agree.

However, we're a republic. We elect officials who we assume will run things in a particular manner. We don't control every vote they make, so we base their actions on the type of person they are.

I digress. Jeff is so wrong when it comes to religion-morality. Everyone bases their morality on something. Some choose God, some choose Gaia, some choose whatever the day brings them in the NYT. Each person has a list of right and wrong and each one is as irrelevant as the other. So Jeff trying to scare people into forgetting the Kerry / Swiftie issue by aligning the whole thing with government sponsored religion just reeks of desperation.

Character is a distraction from the issues that really matter, the issues a President can influence that, in turn, affect our lives. Look at this campaign in many blogs and certainly on TV: We're not arguing the important issues that supposedly divide us; we're sniping instead. Once again, it's unproductive. Worse, it's divisive and destructive.

I want to discuss the highlighted portion there first. Yes, we should be interested in the issues that affect our lives and the politicians that are the most responsible for them. That being said, who are your local Representatives, both state and national? Most people I talk to don't even know the district they are in but think the POTUS is the most important political figure in their lives.

If you want to argue the really important issues, it should be the ones closer to yourself and not at such a high level where decisions take years to filter down to the masses. Yes, I do realize there are many important things to look at for the President, but in my very jaded Republican view, the man shouldn't have that much to do with me. I'd prefer the President to work on things like the military, basic economy (taxes up / down), providing a balanced and fair judicial system, and keeping the states from shooting each other. Leave health care up to locals who are affected differently based on their locale instead of trying to pass gargantuan policies that end up pissing in everyone's corn flakes.

By the way, my info is as follows

Congressional District is 12 and my Rep is Adam Putnam (R)

FL  Senate, District 10 - Tom R. Lee (R)
FL  House of Representatives, District 56 - Sandra Murman (R)

If you need help learning this information for yourself, please see www.congress.org.