Wake me in October

And I'll pay attention to the election stuff.  Because thus far, all I've discovered about politics in 2008 are the following:

• "Smart" equals "Better than you."  Or it should, dammit.
• The corollary to the first point is this:  "Smart" is defined as having the correct political opinions.  The correct political opinions are the ones held by the person calling him/herself smart.  Ergo, all smart people think correctly, correct thinking is smart, and anyone holding a different political opinion is therefore stupid and should die in a fire. QED.
• The definition of "working class" differs according to the state where it's being applied, and the size of the population that can be shoehorned into the working class, particularly where vote pandering is concerned.
• People are always shocked, shocked! That folks on their side of the aisle can act as horribly as folks on the "evil, other side," especially when the "evil" actions on their side are directed against the candidate they support. 
• The definition of "evil" can include asking legitimate questions of a candidate you support and/or making remarks which could be construed as critical of said candidate.
• No one wants to resort to negative campaigning, except to mention all the ways in which they COULD have campaigned negatively before rejecting the negative campaign strategy.
• Similarly, all candidates have moved beyond race, gender and age issues, and will point that out by telling the voters how wrapped up in race, gender and age issues the other candidates are, or by subtly reminding the voters that the other candidates are of a different race, gender, or age than they are.
• Policy discussions must avoid "getting bogged down" in things like plans or strategy or details, to avoid "confusing the voters."
• The only people who will have to pay higher taxes are always those who "deserve it," and the definition of this class of people varies in size and income levels based upon the number of "working class voters" in the voter population being addressed.

I'm sure my list is incomplete, but my sense of self-preservation has prevented me from thinking about this any further, because I'm not in the mood to reconstitute my head post-explosion.