Issues vs. Character…or are They the Same?

Professor Galarneau discusses the "issues" of this 2008 presidential campaign, with similar implications as if one were to give a mouse a cookie. Enjoy...

Here we go. Again. The campaigns are already starting to cloud what should be considered the most important aspect of presidential campaign arguments. The 2008 election is moving into that very subjective junction where Jerry Springer meets talk radio: Character opinion.

When was the last time that ISSUES maintained enough momentum to make it through the name-calling cycles of the media slaughterhouse all the way up to election day? He said, she said, they said...I’m telling!!!

Is the Environment still important, or is it more important that Sarah Palin’s daughter is pregnant? Are we concerned with a rough economy or are we more concerned with a perception that Obama and Paris Hilton have anything in common.

Jobs? Health care? National security? Who needs to talk about these when our society absorbs media confluence of gossip and bias that can only be satiated by sponging more of what the media provides in an endless, self-satisfying cycle. Real issues are boring. Real gossip…yummy.

What is the number one concern in this country? The character of the candidates? It makes you wonder if what the candidates plan to do once they get into office holds much weight (at least at this point in the campaigns, Sept. 2).

I guess I’ll have to ask Oprah Winfrey.

-Professor Pete Galarneau (the satirical approach)