After watching lots of CNBC and political coverage on TV for the last few weeks, there are several things that will drive me to total, irretrievable insanity very shortly.

- Hearing the terms "Main Street" and "Wall Street" uttered in the same sentence.

- More video of Sarah Palin winking and playing up the Alaskan accent. I've seen plenty of other videos of her where she's communicated without these affectations, so please - give it a rest.

- Further rhetoric designed to assuage the anger of the general populace about the economy, as opposed to addressing the actual economic problem itself. Perhaps I'm an idiot, but I don't see how capping executive pay packages will affect problems with lending; it seems like all that will do is make regular people of more modest means feel like the "bad people" are being punished.

I'm currently waiting in total apathy for yet another presidential debate, during which I expect both candidates to dance like ballerinas and thoroughly avoid answering any of the questions asked of them. I've gathered very little from the debates so far that gives me any further indication of how either candidate intends to run our country; they might as well have not happened. Perhaps we'll get something worth seeing tonight, but I seriously doubt it.

Quite frankly, I've been really disappointed with both candidates. I thought McCain totally kicked ass when he ran in 2000, but there are no remnants of the former McCain in this shell of a man I now see before me; he seems to have completely lost his take-no-prisoners tendencies (pun intended) in the last 8 years. Obama looked like a serious contender earlier in the race, but is obviously playing it safe this late in the game so as not to give up the slight lead he's picked up in recent weeks, which seems to have come more from Palin's and McCain's public blunders than from any direct action on Obama's part.

Admittedly, I haven't been paying attention to American politics all that much until the last eight years. After all, this will be the first election in which I have the right as a citizen to vote. But it seems to me that it's been a long time since this country has seen a landslide election as a result of one candidate truly being better suited to run the country than the other. The last two elections seemed to be more about picking the least damaging option from an inherently weak selection, and the latest election seems to be following suit.

As an independent, it seems to me that many people simply back their party's candidate without any serious examination of their qualifications, and leave the votes split at almost 50/50. That's frustrating. Then again, with the offerings we've had in the past few years (Bush/Kerry and now McCain/Obama), I'm not sure we've had much of a choice. In the absence of candidates with any real substance, mission, or persona, all you have left to guide you is a loose party affiliation based upon some general principles you may agree with for how a country should be run.

And so, I find myself drawn to choosing my next president for what I consider the wrong reasons, such as "who will screw things up the least?" Although, considering the state of the country today, that might not be such a bad place to start after all.

Congratulations, mediocrity; if the status quo endures, it seems that you will be the sole winner once again.