I know, I know, it's not in my nature either.

But here's an alternate take. Enough townhall debates with both candidates on youtube and every little comment will be so microanalyzed, so spun, so exploited for every potential liability that the whole concept of the gotcha moment will have lost its meaning. New moments will be generated faster than a news cycle, even in the age of the 24-hour news network. Serious public relations management of the campaign will no longer be possible. Eventually, the spin will stop, or at least have lost any relevance. It's post-spin.

That's my hope. And I think it's possible...wouldn't it be great if people voted for John McCain because they really believed we should stay in Iraq indefinitely, or Obama because they wanted to consider negotiating with countries we disagree with?

katedc: I hereby dub you the only real "middleview" of this discussion that I have yet to read. Finally a voice of reason. Unless I misunderstood you, we both agree that people should just vote for the candidate of their choice based on what they want in their next POTUS. Personally I am a proactive type myself but I am smart enough to know that there is a time to fight and a time to talk and we need a POTUS with the wisdom to know when and how to do both. Shame with the cloning abilities we can't combine the best qualities of all the candidates into one near perfect POTUS...Now that would be scary!