The end can't get here fast enough.

So, I am going to make a prediction.

Short of one of the candidates eating rat poison before the scheduled presidential debate, and throwing up on national TV, I think the outcome will be about 49% to 49% with 2% holding out until the next debate. A draw. Dead even.

Then I going to guess it will be about 49.5% to 49.5% for the next one.  I just don’t think people are changing their minds. Which is sad in a way, because there is a lot of money being poured into the campaign at this stage by both sides that could be better spent, buying hand guns for the mentally ill or friendship badges for Islamic extremists. For that matter the Kock Brothers could make a huge donation to Jerry Jones to buy him a new QB. Since their money doesn’t seem to be buying any independent voters’ minds here as the election draws closer, put it to some good use.

What could the Super Pacs really do with that money?

Create a fund to educate returning veterans for jobs. Create a safety net for out of work employees. Training, insurance, emergency loans – that kind of creepy socialism type of stuff. Buy health insurance for the poorest of the poor. Fund more troops at out boarders. (We have to keep the Canadians out.  Really, who wants to learn yet a third language. I hate French!)

I don’t think the debates are going to make a nat’s difference in this election. Not because they shouldn’t, but because everyone has moved into their own corners and it doesn’t seem as if they want to come out. Their minds are made up.

But give the candidates their due, they are pulling out all the stops.

Take Romney for example. He is already drifting toward the center away from the Tea Party right. He’s done it in taxation, social issues and yesterday said, that most of the Obamacare platform would remain in tact under his new plan. (He just wants to change the name to Mittcare.) He even suggested that Medicare and Social Security don’t need as much tampering with as he had earlier suggested. This has many Far Right GOPers hopping mad. But he’s trying to recruit independents (all 270,000 of them or about 5,400 per state) to come back aboard.

The far Left is still angry with Obama for capitulating to the Right on healthcare, for not closing Guantanamo and for not having us out of Afghanistan yet. And for that reason, fund raising on the President’s team has been harder than ever this election.

Both guys are having trouble with their own bases. But it will not, in the long run, change how people vote.

And I do not think the debates are going to change anybody’s mind, either. If you are a Romney fan, you’ll say he won.  If Obama is your guy, then of course, he carried the day. The real winners will be those poor folks in swing states, who for a few hours during the debate, will be freed from the non-stop pandering and politicizing of their airwaves, which they have had to put up with for at least the last three months.

There have been so many Super PAC commercials running that one guy in Cincinnati was heard to say, “I never thought I’d miss Mr. Whipple so much.”

This campaign has been far too long. The American people are tired of it and its noise. Tired of the negative ads. Tired of the lies. Tired of the half-truths. And tired of corporations and big money interest, trying to buy votes. But what they are more tired of than anything, is that nobody is coming up with any new ideas THAT CAN WORK.

Ryan’s economic plan will not work. (History and the OMB have proven that.) Obama’s hasn’t exactly caught the world on fire, either. So where are the fresh new ideas?

Most of you know my political leanings. But here is some equal time critique –I must say the Democrats are signing the same old song, too. Just as the Republicans are. Where are the bright, new minds who can deliver us fresh thinking and positive results? Results that will hold up to transparent vetting and to math.

Maybe the parties are too crowded with their own form of political welfare and there is no room inside of these people. Maybe we need a third party. Or a fourth. Or fifth. God knows I could use a fifth right now. Especially if it is amber colored and from Kentucky.

Cheers America, I’m drinking to this election being over. And soon. (We’ve got to get ready for the next one. Because no matter who wins in November, the other guys stole it.)