I hate it when I’m forced to break my blog rule about no politics but this week’s events have left me no choice.

Remember when the presidency of the United States used to be held in high esteem?  I know that ever since Kennedy was exploring Marilyn’s every orifice and Nixon demystified the presidency forever, the office was still held in high regard by most citizens.  But we didn’t have the media coverage we do now.  Most of America never saw FDR in his wheelchair since the media never showed it out of respect to the office.  Everyone knew he had polio but the holder of the office of the presidency was never shown in a “weak” light.

Take into account that a lot of secrets of our earlier presidents simply weren’t known or told to the public, there probably were sordid stories of most of our presidents that would taint our view of them nowadays.  Obviously at the beginning of our country’s presidential history, the press didn’t have a) the access and b) the technology to spread information at instantaneous speed. 

I mention all this because of what I considered to be the breaking point for me in pandering for votes at the expense of tarnishing the office.  To keep this as neutral as possible, we will NOT mention the current and previous presidents’ indiscretions, as I don’t want to incite a flame war on this blog.  What I’m curious to know is if presidential candidates back then pandered to the lowest common denominator to get votes from people they had no interest in or did they simply pay all their attention to the Electoral College?

This past Monday night was a new low in American politics for yours truly.  All three candidates gave stilting uncomfortable “trash talk” pre-recorded video for fans of WWE’s Monday night Raw.  With lines like “Can you smell what Barack is cooking?” and horrifically coined names like "HillRod" and "McCainiacs", I truly felt as though I were watching some dark comedy about presidential elections 50 years from now.  After viewing all three videos on youtube, a buddy at work described the feeling best as how you feel uncomfortable during the brilliantly awkward scenes on 'The Office' where you cringe during one of Michael Scott’s many faux-pas.  It was painfully obvious that none of the candidates, based on their low enthusiasm level and uncaring that they didn’t attempt to hide the fact they were reading off cue cards, that each of their staffs told them the other two candidates were doing this so they had to join suit or fear looking like an elitist.

Well, guess what?  If not pandering to the WWE/American Idol/Who Wants To Marry a Millionaire crowd makes them an “elitist”, then so be it.  I just want November to be over with so we don’t have to see videos of people sipping Crown Royal shots and defending why they don’t wear American flag pins 24/7 and whether or not someone is too “conservative” or “liberal” or “black” or “not possessing a penis” or “old” for their own party.

Is that too much too ask?  Of course it is.