(This is a one - time bonus op - ed column. My regular weekly column will appear Saturday. October 6. 2012)

We are literally hours away from the first of three Presidential Debates on TV, and the thought occurs there are still people out there who have not yet made up their mind who they will vote for.

They are waiting for tonight’s debate to see who deserves their ballot.

Say what? Are they kidding? Nope, they are dead serious (or just brain - dead).

Let me be blunt. If by now you still don’t know whom you are voting for, you never will know. If the outcome of tonight’s telecast is any sort of determining factor, then you are the worst sort of American electorate, and you would do your country a favor by staying away from the polling place.

There are, in reality, going to be three debates. The first is advertised be to on the Economy. The 2nd is supposed to be on Jobs, and I believe the 3rd will have to do with the Budget. Whoopee! I wonder what alternatives TV Guide offers?

The gist is, 99.8% of your countrymen have already decided for whom they will be voting, thus rendering these debates nothing more than an exercise in rhetoric. Jamie Dupree contends the only true “debate” would be to sit the candidates down at a round table — sans a moderator — and give them each 90 uninterrupted minutes to talk about their views on each particular subject.

Will it ever happen that way? Get real. Each is afraid the other will get the upper hand. Besides, they like the “control” a structured debate gives them. Who cares, which would best serve the American public?

I personally will watch tonight’s debate — though not to determine who gets my vote. I have already decided to sit this election out — for reasons previously stated. I cannot vote for Mitt Romney no matter what he says. He just doesn’t “look” Presidential (he walks funny), and he certainly seems to be a fish out of water. Are those reasons enough? I do not know — but they are as good as yours.

On the other hand, Barack Obama, though surrounded by a staff worse than what plagued Richard Nixon, deserves a second term, if only to make certain several heads roll. In any event, he is better suited to lead the country further, more so than his opposition on his best day.

There are those who thrive on bullying me with dialogue that says anything is better than Mr. Obama. He is, according to them, a Socialist Communist Nazi Muslim whose only ambition is to ruin democracy once and for all. Horse puckies. They said the same thing about FDR, John Kennedy and Bill Clinton — only worse.

In fact, they have bellowed the same old venom about democrats since the Revolutionary War (not that they were labeled such back then); it has become the singular, most prevalent argument against the current leader. All the debates in the world cannot change such radical thinking.

This one certainly will not. I cannot wait to read the emails in response to this column.


Copyright©2012 by Robert A. Mills, all rights reserved