And am I ever glad to have crossed that off my list. Flipping through talk radio and the websites, everyone's talking about:

1. How the polls should be interpreted - Beware the Democrat/Republican landslide!
2. Palin's clothes
3. Who's calling who a terrorist
4. How the other side is the real terrorist

Not an issue in sight, and there hasn't been in weeks. In the rare moments when an actual position on the issues seeps in through the cracks in the ranting, it's invariably one from the "other side" being tangentially mentioned before being dismissed as impossible or dangerous as the rhetoric slides back into rant mode.

Seriously - take a poll of your own. Turn on your favorite pundit tomorrow and try to count the number of times an actual detail of your favorite candidate's plan for improving America is presented. I can almost guarantee it won't happen. There might be a mention of a key word or two, like "free market" for McCain, or "lower taxes" for Obama, before the host goes on to talk about the other side as being clueless, dangerous, or a terrorist. But that's not exactly analysis, is it?

Note to pundits: This particular independent wants to know the issues, not who paid for who's clothes, who ordered lobster (though that one was false), who says who is a terrorist or Unamerican, and by the way - who the fuck cares what Joe the Plumber thinks?! It's like the media have been taken over by the freaking National Enquirer, left and right. Glad I'm done.