ORLANDO, Fla. -- I used to be a political junkie. I don’t think I am anymore. Because politics has become, well, just too junkie – too much junk.

I want to know what the candidates think about the real issues. I’m not so much interested in the finger-pointing and the shrill accusations. Irony is so amusing anymore either. You know, the McCain campaign actually posted a running clock on its website counting the days that Obama last visited Iraq, implying that the senator did not think Iraq was a priority, then he went to Iraq and the McCain campaign couldn’t stop whining about that. Obama, on the other hand, is loving every minute of his rock-star status, which is fine is you’re a rock star, but he isn’t; he’s a presidential candidate. It would be nice if both campaigns would come back down to earth and speak to the voters and show that they care more about what we’re feeling than what the candidates and their surrogates are saying about each other. If we want to be in the middle of a petty, name-calling altercation, we can just visit a local playground and observe children.

Frankly, the back-and-forth accusation of flip-flopping is a complete bore. You know what? People change their minds. That’s right. I thought about wearing a white shirt today, but I decided against it. Then I thought about driving the surface roads to work to save on tolls, but then I decided against it, concluding that all the stop and starting at red lights would not be fuel efficient. I was going to visit China this summer, but that place is an environmental disaster – air pollution, toxic spills in waterways, few if any standards or controls in the food industry – I decided it was safer to go to China at Epcot…Now, of course, I realize that the leader of the free world has to make more important decisions than the color of a shirt, or the best way to commute to work, but my point is that to change your mind is human. I do, in fact, want a political leader who is willing to listen to others, to educate him or herself, and, if need be, to change his or her mind if the facts warrant a new approach. That’s not flip-flopping. That’s smart leadership.

Flip-flopping is about pandering. And pandering undermines the integrity of any candidate – whether that be pandering to a religious group, a social movement, a special interest group, or to one specific version of patriotism. As Americans we need to resist the urge to box these candidates in to positions where there is no wiggle room for the flexibility of the human spirit and the enlightened mind. That’s easier to do than most of us think. Try listening without judgment. Try turning off the pundits for a day. Try looking at the candidates as two individuals with distinct visions for this country – not wrong or right, but different; try looking at Obama and McCain as men, not parties. Try believing that both men have the best interests of America at heart. Try having faith that either one of them might actually want to do the right thing.

I’m going to try all those things – because these days it beats being a political junkie in a culture where everybody beats up on everybody else like schoolyard bullies. There are no bullies in Cooper’s Town. I invite both McCain and Obama to spend a day here. I’d like to see if they could suspend the rhetoric and actually offer ideas, solutions and perhaps a photo op of both men filling my tank, paying my electric bill and standing in line with me at the grocery store.

Thanks for stopping by. See you next time.