This election is killing me. I have never felt quite the same way about any presidential election. There have been times when I was lukewarm toward many of the Democratic hopefuls, but that doesn’t begin to describe how I feel today. Lukewarm would be a definite improvement over the way I feel, in fact I would welcome lukewarm. It would be akin to the way a hunter would welcome a roaring fire after he came in from the artic, after falling through the ice and trudging miles through a blizzard in wet, icy garb. That picture describes the way I feel about the prospects of voting for the choices that have been offered.

I am consistently bombarded with descriptive phrases about Senator Barack Obama’s apparently magic oratory skills. I have been inundated with first-hand accounts of how he can sway an audience, how his melodic, measured voice can captivate people and how his words can stimulate the imagination. In quest of this captivation and stimulation, I have dutifully listened, and I have waited for the enthusiasm to rise from my core and sweep me into the fold of loyal supporters. The result was that no matter how I tried, no matter how I focused, the words swept over me like rolling waves, my soul never stirred.

This left me believing that I have undergone some type of political lobotomy (maybe the GOP operated on me while asleep…a kind of political abduction), or that the Senator’s oratory skills had been greatly exaggerated. To be truthful, while he has a style and a good delivery, the content of his message seems to lack any real substance. If one couple’s that with the information I have been able to ascertain about him, his supporters and financial backers, Obama is the typical archetype of the 21st Century corporate controlled politician.

Looking at the current state of the world, this is exactly the kind of leadership we don’t need. We are involved militarily on two major fronts, our soldiers are too few in number and over-extended by too many deployments to a combat zone, and our economy is tanking as we sink ever deeper into a financial quagmire by spending over 800 Billion dollars on these two wars. Our Constitution, along with our civil liberties, have been savaged by seven years of neo-con rule. We can readily see that the rest of the world thinks of America as a belligerent empire that thinks nothing of violating the borders of a sovereign nation as long as it is in America’s best interests. We currently have approximately 650 bases in 130 foreign countries and we are building four new permanent super-bases in Iraq. This while Bush and Cheney rattle sabers in the general direction of Iran, while supporting a far-right regime in Israel that does it’s best to commit genocide against the Palestinian people under the guise of “securing its borders”.

With America facing so many challenges in just about every quarter imaginable, there should be more than enough material to keep a candidate busy. Americans need a leader that can offer solutions to the problems we face. The current administration seems completely out of touch with reality. It threatens war with Iran even though we are militarily and economically overextended, while the Congress does nothing to stem the excesses of Bush/Cheney. The Global War on Terror continues to erode our civil liberties and our foreign policy treats our neighbors in this global community as vassal states, friend and foe alike. Our mainstream media no longer reports the truth about what is happening on this planet, preferring to instead report on the personal lives of entertainers and public figures. The news is no longer the news; it now serves as just a distraction to keep our citizens entertained and away from the issues that should concern us while giving Bush and Company the cover it needs to continue their agenda.

Meanwhile, the Democratic opposition consists of two ego-driven freshman Senators that continue to use smoke and mirrors to clinch the nomination. They both cast serious doubts on each other about the ability to lead America through crisis. They talk about the future as if the problems of this nation lie ahead. They rarely talk about the present, where the road we are taking is strewn with landmines. Obama and Clinton talk of change, they talk of bringing this country into a new day, they talk about doing things differently, and meanwhile their campaigns for the most part, are run with corporate dollars. These are the lawyers, bankers, defense contractors and oil companies, along with the PAC’s and special interest groups. They not only promise to work for the people, but they also promise their corporate backers that they will continue to safeguard their interests. In an atmosphere that breeds contempt for any type of corporate regulation or responsibility, the top 10% of the wealthiest people in this nation control 71% of its wealth. Meanwhile, the median income drops by $2,000 a year and benefits get cut on those workers that are employed by companies having a hard time staying afloat in today’s economic climate. Corporations like American Axle cuts its employees wage from $26.00 an hour to $11.50, eliminates its dental and vision coverage and increases the medical deductible on its major medical. Even though the company lost $222 million dollars in 2007, they manage to pay their CEO $10.9 million dollars in salary and compensation!

There is very little talk of regulating companies and banks that make financially unsound decisions that negatively affect the economy, no talk of strengthening Unions to protect the workers, or proposing tax incentives for those manufacturers that resist outsourcing their workforce. Astonishingly, there is hardly any mention of the negotiations that are leading to the formation of the North American Union, in which Bush signed treaties that if put into effect, would virtually eliminate the United States as we know it, without any authorization or consultation from Congress! Meanwhile Americans seem oblivious of the fact that neither Obama nor Clinton brings any of these things up to any great extent.

I have mentioned some of the issues that I feel that the Democrats are remiss in not talking about. I believe that they don’t address these things because they are already owned by the interests that would rather let a sleeping dog lay. The American people deserve better, even though they fail to grasp the true issues that should be concerning every one of us. I blame the corporate-controlled media for not putting these issues into the forefront. I blame the Democratic Party for leaving the interests of the middle class behind in favor of the moneyed elite. I blame the candidates for not bringing these issues up and explaining how important it is for all Americans to become involved. This situation in which we find ourselves can be attributed to a failure of the imagination in bringing real solutions to real problems. I also believe that we have very little time left to solve these problems and get it right. Maybe this is why Obama doesn’t stir me, he seems afraid to address these problems. Sooner or later he’s going to have to deal with these things. They won’t go away by themselves.

That’s the way I see it.