debate debacle

I made the mistake of watching the debate last night, or rather part of it since I couldn't take it anymore after 40 minutes. The particular news site I was using to stream the debate also happened to have an opinion poll on the same page. It allowed you to indicate how strongly you agreed or disagreed with what was being said while showing the average responses as they were being sent in, which meant that you could really get the flavor of the mood of the audience. What really irked me was that when either candidate stood up, before he had even begun speaking, the tracker would drastically swing to agree or disagree depending on who was speaking, clearly revealing them as partisan hacks who didn't give a damn about the issues or the words that were coming out of the candidates' mouths. They had already made up their mind about what they theought about each candidate before either of them had even begun to answer a question.

I'm disappointed, but not surprised, by the American people. Don't they care about the issues? Can't they wait a few moments to hear out the arguments on the other side and think about things rationally?

And this is what I hate about politics. Too many people choose a candidate based solely on political party and then automatically discount what the other side says because they're the other side. When election time rolls around, a politician who works well with someone of the opposite party is suspected as being a turncoat- too liberal or too conservative. Romney has to appeal to conservative extremists to get a nomination and then fall back to moderate once it comes to national elections. Obama is expected to completely turn around the economy in 4 years...etc, etc, etc. It's all just silly. Asinine. Infuriating.

I wish Nader were running again.