The only candidates I like aren't going to win

I've been thinking about the effect media has on the presidential races. The media reports and places emphasis on the candidates that are mentioned most by voters. They interview and hound those who have the best numbers in their "polls". So, if a candidate is best qualified but not known...he has to break through the media block and start making himself known. This...without stupid amounts of money is impossible. But without people knowing about you...you can't raise this much money. Your party won't help you because their interested in who is most "electable". They don't want to waste their money on a candidate who doesn't look like they are going to win. They aren't concerned about the candidate's policies or character...they are solely in the game to win. As long as the people in America are voting for our party we don't need to pour money into your campaign. This brings about an interesting phenomenon of people not wanting to "waste" their vote. People begin to realize how the party works, and strangely begin to focus on who they don't want in office. I don't think its so much "my party must win" this round...but "I don't want XXX from the other party to win". So, instead of voting for the candidate in their party that they like most they vote for the candidate of their party who is most electable...most likely the candidate that their party thinks has the best chance to win...most likely the candidate the media is whooping and hollering about. Strangely enough...this candidate is the one people then talk about the most when asked by the media; so on and so forth. Combine this phenomena with the one where people are subconsciously conditioned to vote along party lines simply because THE PARTY!! THE PARTY!! has been pounded into our society for the last 200 years and you have a multi-faceted multi-layered system for locking out candidates who don't play the game of politics. Where does this leave me? I'm an independent, which means I'm not partisan. I vote for the person I think can make the calls and perform the best under the enormous stresses our president is placed under AND the one who I think can sift through thousands of pieces of information WITH their advisors and work seamlessly together with them to make the decisions necessary for our country. This last qualification, I feel, discounts Giuliani, Romney, Obama, McCain and Clinton. Who do I like? Bill Richardson and Ron Paul. Two candidates no one knows about and who will never win. What to do? I do feel the need to make my vote "count" but what is that. Is it pride saying that I'd better vote for the candidate who will win or I'll look bad? I’m not sure. All I know is that I had to go digging on the internet to find a list of all the candidates running. Every news station…including NPR…only lists or even mentions the first two or three candidates. I’m getting kind of fed up with the way the media is driving this election. It started out promising…multiple candidates with a huge variety of views. Though, in the end, partisan politics and media knuckle-headedness have again ruined another potential opportunity for AMERICA to choose the best suited leader. While we all know democracies don’t actually work…it be nice to have a republic that felt more like a democratic republic than a aristocratic one.


Other random thoughts:

I like electric paint shakers. I can get a whole body deep massage with just one can of paint!

Today, I heard Hillary use the line after winning Nevada, “ So, I guess that’s how the west was one,” oye…I don’t need to president that uses lines.