Top Five: Reasons I’m Not Watching The Debate Right Now

1. Politics just makes me angry. Not only will my blood pressure rise just watching the debate, but it would give me more fuel to want to argue and get angry at people about it later on.

2. Debates aren’t that great of a forum for policy anyway. At least not televised debates. Written debates would be much more informative. Of course, there’s more to presiding than just policy, but still.

3. My politics are based on principles. And there is never a question of which party’s candidate will come closest to those principles.

4. Who cares about VP’s? The Obama campaign and the media (but I repeat myself) care a lot about Sarah Palin because they see her as a much easier target than McCain (specifically, she’s a stereotype, even more useful because it’s the same stereotype they give for Bush–against whom Obama is really trying to run). But really, VP’s rarely do anything of importance, apart from possibly succeeding their P’s.

5. I don’t vote. And I’m not in the least bit ashamed of it. To anyone who thinks my vote “makes a difference”: I’d be happy to make a bet with you of a dollar against everything I own. We can do an easy counterfactual check after the election is done, and if my vote would have made a difference you get it all.

5a. No seriously. I would get effing pissed.

—–

Addendum (to number 4):  An argument can be made that this VP debate is more important because of John McCain’s age and health. This may be, but it’s only slightly more important. Matt Damon says to look at the actuary tables on McCain, but this neglects at least the two facts that McCain clearly has good stock (his mom’s still going), and he has access to the best medical treatment in the world.