Choices, Part 2 — Sorting out the Chaff

September 14th, 2008 at 05:01pm Gary Tiffany

A reader posted a comment to my last post and agreed that it is difficult to sort through the chatter on the candidates. He reiterated my somewhat rhetorical question and asked how I and other members of the Voters’ Panel plan to “sort through the chaff” to reach a decision on who to vote for. While I cannot speak for other members of the Panel, I am settling on a strategy that I believe will work for me.

The candidates main websites are a good place to start, but one has to remember that they are obviously pushing their own positions. I tend to ignore most of the radio media (Rush, Hannity, Dobson, etc.) because they are more about creating controversy than discussing the real issues. As someone once said, “Gentlemen, we’ve got to protect our phoney-baloney jobs!” I’ve yet to hear any of them talk sensibly about an issue. All they want to do is push their agendas. About the only radio personality I’ve found who seems to take an objective, balanced view of the political madness is WLS’ Roe Conn. At least when he discusses politics, he looks at the issues in a practical way.

I also recommend ignoring all the stuff coming out of the blogosphere (except this blog, of course!), as they mostly try to stir things up and keep us away from the real issues. The poster said he believes that the national press is out of control and seems to go out of their way to push a specific agenda. While that may be true of some of the papers, I believe you can still find a balanced view out there. One of the best sources I’ve found is Newsweek magazine. I’ve always been impressed with the insights offered by their reporters and how they can dig into claims to get to the real meat of a situation. The articles are very informative and go much more in depth on a topic than newspapers can. They will tell you the good and the bad. As far as the TV media goes, I really miss Tim Russert. He did a great job for Meet the Press and NBC News and could really break things down to the nitty-gritty.

Basically, what it comes down to is for each person to invest the time to do some research on the candidates and, more importantly, to go in with an open mind. That is key. Try to look at the issues from the other candidate’s point of view and try to understand why they support a particular position. THEN make the decision as to whether you can live with that position or not. Tune into the upcoming debates to see what the candidates have to say. Talk to people whose opinion you value to see what they have to say on a particular candidate and see whether you agree with their opinion. Ultimately, each person has to make the decision that is right for them.

Unfortunately, most people won’t take the time necessary to do all that. Many won’t even take the time to vote, and then they’ll complain because they don’t like the way things turn out.

Gary Tiffany

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