Does anyone know how to reach Dirty Jobs host Mike Rowe Cleaning out the e-mail boxes at the Press Gazette during political season can be quite a chore. It would rank right up there with him cleaning out port-a-potties and feeding tilapia. As a case-in-point: After the second presidential debate finished, we took the opportunity to count the e-mails received at our news@srpressgazette.com address. We received over 30 e-mails immediately following the debate and 25 of those e-mails came from the Obama-Biden campaign. Just how many people are on his staff? We received e-mails for a pre-debate fact check, a fact check on coal, a fact check on taxes, a reminder that the debate was “rigged” and we even got an e-mail with a warning that it contained suspicious URL content focusing on the early reviews of the debate. Calling it like we see it, there is more mudslinging and less to be known about the candidates than ever before. Our presidential election has gone from electing the better candidate to actually voting for the lesser of two evils. Please don't think this could be an anti-Obama editorial or an anti-Romney editorial – both parties are guilty of flooding emails with bogus “letters to the editor.” And both parties are equally offensive on the campaign trail. Our nation has several problems: jobs, consumer and investor confidence, a debt that is out of this world, a major trade deficit with other nations, and the list goes on and on. We are not talking about a problem created by Republicans or Democrats, but by both and something that has continued to build under the watch of both parties. Something must give and the scare tactics must stop. It’s time to put away scare tactics and mindless banter and start having candidates that tell it like it is – even if it isn’t something any constituents want to hear. Health care has been a key topic in presidential elections for decades. If you think politics in Washington is bad, think about those who try to help us from an ailment. The scientist comes out with a drug and it is marketed to the public. The public goes to the doctor and talks to him or her because their symptoms matches those described in the drug ad. Being a doctor who listens to his or her patient, they prescribe the drug and the patient gets better. But later, side effects show up. Attorneys quickly place ads on television looking for people to take part in a class action suit. The doctor is sued for prescribing the drug and the drug company is sued for daring to spend billions of dollars trying to solve a problem. Nowhere in the equation is a place for the individual to take personal responsibility. Doesn’t everyone know that any drug comes with risk? If they don’t, well, we’re telling you now. And so, tort reform is another key issue. We have several issues facing us today, but a solution must come from a politician who can tell the people the truth and not play politics.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: It's not even November and we're tired of the rhetoric