Being either morally or financially opposed to the ownership of a television, i have been following the Presidential debates through a variety of online resources. For the first i resorted to digesting every article i could find. For the second i read a verbatim transcript. For the third debate, i started my decision-making process with following the absolutely hilarious blow-by-blow by MSNBC blogger Keith Olbermann.

I like the idea of evaluating candidates based on the text of their performance, rather than the accompanying image; after all, i’ll feel our next president weigh in on my life more than i’ll watch him. However, my friends pointed out that by simply reading a transcript i was missing velocity – how quickly and surely the candidates reacted.

It’s all rather moot, i suppose, because we already know who i plan to vote for, but the entire process churns my stomach. At least i’m relatively insulated through my ignorance of all television, print, and radio media, but i still feel as though every brush i have with the election is making me dumber just by proximity.