Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Street Musician

I just watched a very pretty performance by a street musician on YouTube.  Two things in the video struck me:

1. A surprising number of passer-bys put some money into his case.
2. None of them stuck around to listen to the music.

I wonder why? 

Presidental Elections

Right now, if I had to vote for someone for President, and wasn't allowed to abstain, my vote would go as follows:

1. Mitt Romney
2. Barack Obama
2. Rick Santorum
3. Newt Gingrich

I was listening to Mitt Romney's celebration speech (for winning the Florida primary) this evening on the way home from work, and I had to shake my head several times.  Most of it was at the attacking nature of speech: "My opponents are doing this stupid thing!  The president wants to destroy America!"  Other times it was at the black and white nature of the positions he presented.  "The president wants to disband our entire military! I'm going to make it into the greatest military juggernaut in history!" (Yes, I'm exaggerating.)

Apparently Florida has been just about the most negative political race in history.  As a huge believer in decency, respect, and diplomacy, my estimation of Mitt Romney (and the other candidates) has been lowered because of the attack ads they've ran.

At the same time, I know why the candidates run attack ads: they get attention, they get press, and they get results.  People are swayed by them.  The unfortunate side effect is that candidates are willing to run incorrect (read: lying) attack ads, because by the time they're exposed, the damage has been done and of course the expose gets much less attention than the ad itself.

I'm guessing most people in country would agree that the state of politics in our country is pretty bad.  It's hard going to the polls when you're only selecting the least distastful of two choices.