Well, here we are heading into November which means the first Presidential Primary elections will be coming up in just a few short months. Of course that means we should all be preparing for the upcoming bombardment of negative campaign ads, repeated ad nauseum, over and over and over again, until we all just want to turn off our radios and TV sets and stay in bed all day.

Modern presidential politics is largely a money game, the outcome of which is often determined by which candidate is able to raise the most loot to spend on a nationwide slash and burn ad campaign. The days when candidates would get their message across while speaking “on the stump” are long gone. Those up-close and personal ”get to know me” events still take place, but their purpose nowadays is for creating soundbites for the news outlets to repeat ad nauseum, over and over and over again in the hopes that we’ll eventually start visualizing their opponent(s) as a little red guy(s) with horns and a pitchfork.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against campaign ads and media coverage of the electioneering in general. I think it’s important for those who choose to help decide who our next leader will be to learn about the candidates and what each of them brings to the table in regards to experience, intelligence, political views and moral character. But it shouldn’t take a constant barrage of negative ads aimed at ones opponent(s) to get that message across. But the sad fact is negative campaigning works, and it works extremely well.

As an electorate, we Americans by and large no longer vote for the person that we perceive to be the best, most qualified candidate who also happens to share our views. Instead, we now vote for the man or woman who appears to have the shortest horns and the smallest pitchfork.

The fact of the matter is, with few exceptions the candidates on both sides are decent people who want nothing more than to have the opportunity to do what they feel is best for the country while serving as its elected leader. Their visions for what is best for America might differ quite a bit from our own, but for the most part they’re still decent folks with good intentions. Unfortunately, by the time election day rolls around all of the negative ads have us believing that we have to choose between Hitler and Stalin, and that just isn’t so. And it doesn’t have to be that way…

When it comes to helping select the next President of the United States, we should all be able to rise above having to vote for the “lesser of two evils”. I hope that some day we’ll once again be able to feel good about exercising our constitutional right to pull that precious lever and help make the candidate of our choice the leader of the free world. I’m growing quite weary of stepping out of the voting booth with a bad taste in my mouth.

I rarely watch television these days because, quite frankly, there is little on worth watching.  I remember how my family would gather around the only television set in the house in my younger years to watch “Walt Disney”, “Little House on the Prairie”, “Wild Kingdom”, “Hee Haw” or one of the other wonderful old shows that we used to “get” on the single snowy channel that we could “pick up” with the giant antenna on top of our house “up in the holler”. Now that was a classic example of “quality” trumping “quantity”.

Today however, I can sit and click the remote up and down through hundreds of channels without finding a single program that really catches my attention. I’m sure Cheria thinks I have the attention span of a fruit fly when I’m in command of the remote, but the truth of the matter is I’m just trying to find something worth watching! With just a handful of exceptions, there is simply nothing on the “airwaves” today that even comes close to the quality of the classic old TV shows of days gone by.

But as bad as the modern-day programming is, the “commercials” are even worse! As I flip through the channels searching for quality entertainment (usually without success), I run across Abe Lincoln and a smart-alecky groundhog hawking a prescription sleeping pill to a guy with the personality of an igneous rock. Next, my ears are bombarded by a headache-inducing noise that is passed off as music while the TV screen changes scenes so fast that I get dizzy and have to close my eyes for a few seconds until the “party” is over.

Next, I run across one of those commercials that has no sound at all, making me wonder if I suddenly lost what was left of my hearing or if perhaps my TV set is on the blink! And just when I think it can’t get any worse, up pops an ad for a company or product that isn’t even featured in the commercial at all except for a tiny, fleeting picture or logo at the very end (by which time most people have either changed the channel or stopped paying attention). Having to endure these crazy commercials often makes me not want to watch the few shows that I actually like!

Of course there are a few commercials that still manage to effectively promote their products without driving me completely bonkers. For example, who would have thought that a lizard with an Aussie accent and a couple of cavemen would be able to sell auto insurance, but they seem to be quite successful at it. At least their “shtick” is done in a calm, humorous and relaxing way that leaves you with a positive image of the company and product being hawked. Yes, there are a few decent commercials being produced today, but in my opinion the garbage spewing out of Madison Avenue far exceeds the cream.

Sometimes I wonder if the companies who are spending millions of dollars a year on all of those ridiculous television ads are getting any return at all on their “investment”. I suppose they are or their shareholders would surely stop them from shoveling cash down a rathole, but I sure miss the good ‘ole days when an attractive, well-dressed actor or model would hold up a tube of toothpaste or stand beside a shiny new car extolling the benefits of the product in a calm, friendly, matter-of-fact way. But then I miss the good ‘old days for lots of reasons…and I doubt that I’m alone.

Every time I visit a Wal-Mart store I make it a point to stop by the photo department and check out the cameras. Apparently, Wal-Mart’s warehouses are jam-packed with outdated models because they never have any of the current models on display – but they do have them boxed up in a locked glass cabinet beneath the display counter.

For example, the Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT was discontinued an entire year ago, but every Wal-Mart I have visited recently still has one on display while its replacement (the EOS Digital Rebel XTi) sits boxed up, and locked up tight inside the glass cabinet. The same goes for several other new Canon and Nikon models, all of which are kept locked away while their discontinued counterparts occupy the display counter. One has to wonder what has happened to the Wal-Mart corporation since its founder Sam Walton passed away!

“Mr. Sam” grew what began as a couple of 5 and 10 cent stores in Arkansas into the largest retailer in the world, and he did it in part by developing an ordering and distribution system that ensured well-stocked shelves filled with the latest trends and models. His system was so finely tuned that there was very little “back stock”, and when a new item or a new model came out his stores could quickly “close out” the old, outdated merchandise to make way for the new. But somewhere along the line things changed.

These days, while Wal-Mart stores literally contain millions of items, they rarely seem to have exactly what you’re looking for - especially if you’re in the market for the latest model of an electronic item such as a digital camera, camcorder or computer. Meanwhile, Wal-Mart customers who don’t know any better end up paying about the same amount for last year’s technology as they would pay for a current model somewhere else. I don’t think Mr. Sam would like that very much, but apparently it’s just fine with the board of directors. As long as the shareholders are happy…