Thanks to Louisiana gubernatorial candidates Kathleen Blanco and Bobby Jindal, I think I’ve finally broken my habit of watching too much television.

Local television is so saturated with ads that attempt to put down the other candidate, it nauseates me, and watching the live debates between the two did little to garner my support for either one of them.

Secretary of State Fox McKeithen expects less than half of Louisiana’s registered voters to go to the polls for this Saturday’s run-off election, and I can’t say I would blame people for not voting.

Blanco and Jindal seem so focused on pointing out each other’s faults that I have no idea where they stand on many issues.

Secretly, I don’t think they have any idea, either. I don’t know much about politics, but doesn’t it usually work in a candidate’s favor to have a platform of some kind?

It’s not that I hate politics (although, I might if I knew enough about it).

It simply turns me off.

The more I try to follow debates and campaigns, the more I suspect people are only saying what they think I want to hear to get my vote.

I feel so used.

November 22nd will mark the 40th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination: an event that shocked and saddened the nation.

Kennedy was by no means a perfect president.

But his ability to move people was more a result of what he represented to this country than any political achievement.

There was a moment, in the wake of 9/ll and amidst countless speeches about righting wrongs and reinstating national pride, when it occurred to me that Bush might emerge as a Kennedy-esque hero for my generation.

Understandably, that moment was very brief.

Somehow, Bush fails to “inspirationalize” me. What kind of charisma did men like John and Robert Kennedy have that politicians today lack?

Perhaps the mudslinging extravaganza that is this year’s governor’s race could serve as evidence.

I never thought I’d say this, but I care more about where candidates stand on issues of tax reform than about who is saying nastier things about whom.

As intellectually stimulating as I find Jindal and Blanco’s argument over whose campaign is dirtier, it doesn’t prompt me to try for first dibs at the polls on Saturday.

The two have, however, at least moved me enough to turn the television off: an achievement for which I commend all politicians.