Thoughts 48 hours before the Polls Close

I really am a bad American.

I simply cannot get excited about the election on Tuesday.

I just want it over.

I am not enamored by either candidate but I am not repulsed by them either.

(I was repulsed by John McCain in 2008).

Obama does not seem like a bad person. A bit aloof and disconnected from most Americans but clearly a man who loves his family and seems to want to do the right thing. I am just doubtful that he has enough "pragmatism" to keep America vibrant and not allow the country to regress. He has not "wowed" me the past four years.

Ditto Mitt Romney. Despite the all of the nasty accusations I just don't buy Romney as a lying, "say anything to get elected " guy. 

That said, I also think he just does not "get it". He has no clue as to who is America today and what bothers us (and scares us) and more to the point "what we want to see in our President".

Still, all of the characterizations of both men have been far to simplistic. 

But for me it really doesn't matter. Whether Obama remains or Romney gets a shot, they both will be facing a fiscal mess that they have little chance of controlling let alone fixing. They will be facing an American that is changing daily before their eyes.

Sometimes it seems to me the Democrats have the right ideas, health care for all, women's rights, the importance of stem cell research,  a cleaner environment, etc., but they simply have no idea how to pay for all of these very important and necessary ideals. 

The Republicans seem to have a better grasp of the idea that you can't spend what you don't have, a concept clearly foreign to the Democrats, but their approach to the more humanitarian issues facing America are too cold blooded for me to embrace. 

I have not totally embraced cynicism as a world view but with an eye to American politics I must confess I hold a cynic's view. A cynic is "a person who thinks that people are motivated purely by self-interest rather than acting for honorable or selfless reasons".

If you replace the word " people" with "politician" you have pretty much articulated my thinking on politics.

So, while I will watch the election Tuesday night it will be largely because I have several bets with some friends as to which man wins which battleground state. 

I will also make a prediction. I think President Obama will be reelected. 

You know why? 

When I watched the last night of the Republican convention and Romney and Ryan and their families and friends were on the podium waving at the crowd, I felt like I was watching a rerun of the old Donna Reed show on television. The show ran from 1958-1966 and was a very popular staple of Americans evening viewing.

That was America at a point and time but that point and time is long gone. I am not convinced the Republicans get that. More to the point sometimes you feel they want to go back to that.

Going back is not an option. 

At the end of the Democratic convention with Obama and his family and Biden and his family I felt that I was at the very least, watching a rerun of "Glee". They may not get what Americans want or even need but they at the very least understand what it means these days to be an "American". 

It was interesting to hear both Obama and Romney at times during the campaign talk about the struggles their grandmothers or mothers made to achieve the American dream. They both had inspiring stories of the efforts and the difficulty and even suffering they underwent so that their kids could live a better life and grow up with the American dream not searching for it.

Well, I have never been a welfare recipient, I grew up poor, I do not have a government job, I pay a lot of taxes and guess what, I don't want my grandmother or my mother or my son or anyone's daughter or son to have to struggle that hard, to be middle class in America.

This country in 2012 should be and I believe is better than that.

I think the next President, whomever he may be, must understand that he needs to make sure America stays better than that. 

I know all Americans want that.