A couple of weeks ago we wrote of how we were resigned to an election season featuring the same old faces — and we literally meant old faces — that almost nobody wanted. If you were among the 50 million Americans who watched the Debate Debacle on June 27, you may recall when the two candidates got into an argument about who had the lower golf handicap. For those who missed it, here’s what they said:
Candidate #1: “He challenged me to a golf match…I’ve seen his golf swing…He can’t hit a ball 50 yards…”
Candidate #2: “I’d be happy to have a driving contest with him. I got my handicap down to a 6 when I was vice-president.”
Candidate #1: “That’s the biggest lie, that he had a 6 handicap.”
Candidate #2: “I..I..I…was an 8 handicap…”
That exchange flicked on the proverbial light switch in our mind’s eye– it was an epiphany that made us realize that American politics had reached the nadir of banality.
However, all that has changed in the past week with the injection of Kamala Harris as the Democratic Presidential candidate and J.D. Vance as the Republican vice-presidential candidate. Both will bring fresh faces and fresh perspectives to the upcoming campaign, which now has essentially been compressed into a sprint to November 5.
Hopefully, the candidates will address the issues that matter most to Americans.
To be sure, we fully expect that there will be the usual mud-slinging, but we trust that the voters will be able to sort that stuff out.
But at least we’ll never have to hear the candidates “debating” about their golf handicaps.