Yes! and Yes!

Yeh, it's like a couple of six year olds arguing over...well, basically over nothing.

For whatever reason, this is morphing into nothing more than a personality contest. Obama has his cult of personality and a plan for economic disaster. His track record speaks to someone who's more than happy to run down the print and spend money path. But, dammit, he's a likeable guy. Charismatic, well-spoken (when scripted - he's got great delivery), and all that the left seems to adore.

McCain, OTOH, is cranky and less well-spoken. Not the kind of person that manages to pull of the near and actual worship that Obamatons give to their guy. Palin, however, does inspire confidence and is pretty easy to like. Very charismatic, well-spoken, etc.

Given all of that, when the left starts to sound desparate and attack, the right feels justified in using the same sort of nonsense. After all, if it worked for one it should work for the other, no?

All presidential elections are popularity contests. They were designed that way, from the beginning, as a recognition that popularity is the one true power in the world.

The problem is our electorate has spent too many generations expecting government to take care of them, instead of realizing that they need to take care of the government as well. "Somebody's got to do it" has turned into "somebody *else* needs to do it," and as things fall apart due to the neglect, people are becoming increasingly hysterical and unwilling to face the fact that somebody does, in fact, have to do the ugly jobs that each of us doesn't think we should HAVE to do.

So, in order to attain the popularity needed to win a presidential election, the candidates all have to make false promises that they will take care of things, and we don't have to worry our pretty little heads about them any more. But the breakdowns caused by the systemic neglect are becoming too obvious to ignore, so the lies that have calmed people down for so long on each side of the aisle are only adding to the panic, rather than soothing it.

Get ready for some interesting times.