As the Daily Collegian's copy desk chief, it's my privilege to read through the avalanche of Associated Press stories in an attempt to find the ones that you, the reader, might care even a little bit about. In doing this, I've noticed an odd trend.
For the 2008 presidential election, the stories about politics outnumber the stories about policy on most days. For every story that details a particular candidate's policy stance or views on how the country should be run, there's another five about what the latest political poll of pet owners says or some other completely inane demographic.
Based on the media coverage, it seems we've lost interest in politics as a debate only to pick up an interest in politics as a game. To be fair, I should have noticed this much sooner.
Any day there was a primary election this past spring, the cable news networks were completely devoted to covering them. You would think that after watching most of these primary shows every evening, I would have an above-average understanding of each candidate, but instead, I have an above-average understanding of the demographics of half the states in the nation, plus Guam.
I knew why the candidates won by the numbers. Why I would want to vote for them, though, remained a big question mark -- thanks to primary coverage.
Any day there was a debate, we were again granted exhaustive coverage courtesy of the cable news networks. I would think it impossible to turn something called a debate away from a reasonably pure discussion of ideas and principles, but then I watched the debates during the primaries this past year.
The first question asked after every debate: Who won?
Nevermind the fact that the men and women vying to lead this nation just had a lengthy discussion about their views on that very subject. Who can we label as winners and losers?
Because that's what it's about now -- winners and losers. And in most cases, we don't even wait until the election to decide them. We let polls do it for us.
Just like we discuss whether the latest home town sports team won last night and by how much, we discuss which candidates are "winning" and by how much.
The local baseball team's second baseman is 0-for-ten in his last ten games? Let's get rid of him.
Obama's stance on the economy seems to be weighing him down among a certain demographic? Well, he should change it.
It seems to be the same attitude. But why should we treat politicians the same way we treat athletes?
Both candidates have played the game. McCain has moved to appease conservative voters dating back to when he lost to our current president in the primaries. Obama is defending himself now against criticisms that he is becoming too centrist.
That's why I won't vote for either in the upcoming election.
They've both shown that winning the election is more important to them than standing by ideals. And when a potential president is thinking first of his poll numbers and second of his principles when he makes a decision, I can't have any faith in him at all.
Ian Brown is a junior majoring in information sciences and technology and is The Daily Collegian's copy desk chief and Web editor. His e-mail is idb5002@psu.edu.
