Stop the insanity!

People, people, people. In the immortal words of John McCain, my friends. Maybe we're all just a little frazzled by the extraordinary length of this presidential campaign and its importance. That's understandable. But I feel like things are getting ugly, and sadly, they really don't have to.

A week ago, Senator McCain's campaign indicated that they were taking the gloves off, which apparently means attacking Barack Obama's so-called "associations." At McCain/Palin rallies this week, we've seen people screaming "kill him!" (referring to Obama). Obama HQ here in Winston-Salem advises people to take their yard signs in at night, because so many of them are being stolen or defaced. At least in this area, there have been reports of McCain signs going missing, too. Today when Gov. Palin appeared at a Philadelphia Flyers game, fans booed her and her daughters, despite a scoreboard message urging them to "show Philadelphia's class" (well there's your mistake, right there). Yesterday, when McCain said nice things about Obama, his own fans booed him. Obama returned the favor to McCain, and - you guessed it - booed.

I can't help but see this as the inevitable product of an election process that puts so much emphasis on personalities, rather than policy ideas. At one time I felt really optimistic about this campaign, both because of the mood of the country that's sick and tired of partisan BS and because of the people we nominated, who I believed would be above playing to the worst instincts of their supporters.

The thing is, on Nov. 5 we're all going to have to work together to find the best solutions for our country. We don't have the luxury anymore of dismissing ideas because we don't like the person who proposed them. Get OVER it.

But I do feel better having volunteered this evening at the Democratic Party's booth at the Dixie Classic Fair. Sure, it felt good to sell out of Obama buttons and tell hundreds of people about early voting. But it also felt good to joke good-naturedly with the folks around the corner at the Republican booth, and down the aisle at the Libertarian Party booth. Apparently we here on the ground are a little more mature than some of our leaders.

(Except for the yard sign-stealing people. Let me introduce you to my good friend, the First Amendment.)

(Oh yeah, one more thing. My aunt's a Secret Service agent. Say one thing to my face that I think is remotely threatening to Obama and I'll put your ass on every mf-ing watch list on the planet.)