How will you decide?

I was driving around yesterday and Glenn Beck was on. For the football season he does "Moron Trivia". This entails calling convenient store workers (4 each) in each city that will be playing the Sunday game. I think this week is Tampa and New Orleans. He asks a series of questions and his theory is which every city answers the most correctly, that's the team that will win. So if the workers from Tampa answer the most questions correctly Tampa will win the game.

Anyway, one of the questions was "Can you name 3 candidates who are running for the Democrats?" The one gentleman could name two - Clinton and Obama. Glenn then asked if he knew who he was voting for. The man answered Clinton. Why? Because he felt we needed a more delicate touch in the White House. A change of pace.

Glenn of course had a sarcastic comment which was appropriate and it had me thinking. How will you decide who you vote for? Will their personalities, looks, how many times you hear their name said get your vote? That's the problem with our country, politics have become a popularity contest. We (as a people) no longer bother to look at the issues. Whether dem or rep, we should be voting for that person who best reflects our own beliefs, morality ,etc. We are a government of the people - have we become so shallow that we have allowed our politicians to be just as shallow.

I saw an interview (sorry don't remember specifics) with a polling expert and they did a not-so-political survey on the candidates. Who was the creepiest, who did you think was just telling you want you wanted to hear, who seemed more trustworthy - what amazed me was that most of the dems seemed to get the most percentages on the down side (like Clinton was tops on the creepy survey and tickling your ear) and rep on the upside(most trustworthy, etc) yet we're a country almost completely divided between the two. If you can't trust them, why are you voting for them, just because you're registered as a dem and they're a dem?

Decide who you will vote for on their principles, their morals, based on what you believe to be the best whether it's the war, abortion, medicare, finances, etc. Don't vote for the person who is most popular, who's name you can remember when you get to the voting booth - who will lead our country is an important factor, one that I totally believe most people in this country don't care about.

Remember Sept 11, 2001. Bush had only been in office 9 months but what did we hear all over the country - "we're glad bush is pres and not gore!" If and when we are attacked again, who would you be glad is in charge - clinton?, obama? thompson? gulliani? Because unfortunaltely this is the world we live in today and this is something the next president will have to deal with. Not only preventing it, but reacting should something happen. Do you think Hilary Clinton will react with the force that these people understand? Do you think Gulianni will know how to defend our country? These, among other things, matter. Let that be how you decide who will be our next president, not "cause we need something different." Different is not always better!