The American voter is being treated to (or perhaps being subjected to) the two best financed presidential campaigns in US history.

In May alone, President Obama raised $60,000,000.  Challenger Mitt Romney? He did better by a cool $17,000,0000.  They will continue to raise money at this rate and by all accounts, will shoot the whole wad between now and November. Special interest groups not directly related to the candidates – if I can say that with a straight face – will bring the spending to over a billion dollars.

So why are both candidates so bad?

When the President gets off the teleprompter, he says things that give his opponents fits of joy (Clinging to their guns and religion, you didn’t build that, etc…).  His professoral tone irritates many, but after 3-plus years in the White House, it seems to be increasing rather than decreasing.

As much as the White House can say that some of those quotes are taken out of context, under what circumstances did a speech writer pen “You didn’t build that…” and tell themselves “That’s a great line!”. Professionals are paid to avoid those sorts of things.

Governor Romney has shown a consistent inability to anticipate that when one puts words together, they mean more than they do on their own….anyone remember “My wife drives several Cadillacs…” or “I’ve been unemployed the last few years too…”?

Romney has the potential to mop up on foreign policy matters, but on his first overseas as a candidate, he managed to mangle a softball question on the readiness of the Olympics into an international incident when all he needed to say was “I’m sure they’ll do their best…”.

When there is this much on the line – financially and politically, one would expect that every word spoken would be weighed six different ways.   As it’s going, the one who speaks the least between now and November is probably likely to win.

I’m not horribly concerned about them getting every word perfect – but I am tremendously alarmed at what appears to be horrible judgement on both sides of this election.  This is the big league and both campaigns are being run like suburban t-ball teams.

If I had contributed to either of these guys, I’d want my money back.

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:: Today’s Podcast:  Can the Olympic 10m Air Rifle Competition be that hard?  There’s probably more to it than we know.  Listen here (3 minutes long). ::