Wednesday night McCain and Obama debated for the third and final time before the election. I thought this was the most entertaining of the three. The moderator did an excellent job of asking tough questions and then forcing the candidates to answer them instead of dancing around like they normally do. By now most voters have made up their minds. Election Day is November 4, less than 3 weeks away. Early voting in Texas starts Monday, Oct 20. Obviously I want my candidate to win, but either way, I’ll be glad when it’s over.

Something frustrates me about this election: because of our two-party political system and the archaic electoral college, a handful of states really matter for each presidential election only. CNN has a great website that shows how each state lines up based on the current polls. The Republicans could run Mickey Mouse for President, and Texas and Utah would vote red, sending ALL of their electoral votes to Mickey regardless of the popular vote in those states. The Democrats could run Homer Simpson, and New York and California will vote blue, sending ALL their electoral votes to Homer. All but a few states use the winner-take-all approach, which makes campaigning in, or even worrying about the concerns of, the out-of-reach states a waste of time and money once the primaries are through. I have never read a good justification for either of these terrible systems. However, since the current lawmakers benefit from the two-party system and possibly from the electoral college as well, I doubt either system will change any time soon.