Dreary, 3rd time not the charm, texture

Yesterday was an abnormally dreary day in SW Florida with gray skies and rain that persisted pretty much all day long.  Sure rain in Florida is very common but it normally comes in brief, intense bursts with plenty of sunshine sandwiching it.

Last night I caught a decent portion of the third republican presidential debate.  What I saw was not all that exciting.  There was less interaction between the candidates, it seemed like more of a Q&A session although some of the Q’s were kind of funny.

I found it entertaining watching Marco Rubio dance around two issues, his worst in the Senate attendance record and his personal financial problems that evidently were bad enough that he liquidated a retirement account, taking a huge penalty for doing so.   He obviously had well rehearsed non-answers for these questions where he skipped the question and redirected into circulatory bullshit that went nowhere.

Carly Fiorina continues to annoy the shit out of me.  I suppose since she is a woman somebody has coached her that butting in and forcing yourself into mic time is a good way to show she is assertive and a leader.  I literally cringe as she speaks.  The woman blinks non-stop.  I dare you to try to count how many times she blinks a minute. I think she comes off as terribly unlikable, something some media outlets would dispute.

Trump, who is all about appearance, needs to work on his.  He looked bad with his hair in a condition worse than normal combined with his very pig-like skin color.  I don’t expect him to be hanging around much longer as his vague, sweeping solutions to issues are starting to look more and more like vaporware. If somebody presses him for detail on an opinion Donald has a hard time answering back with much before he falls back on insults and bragging.  I did like that he called out super PACS for the evil that they are. I also think that despite my disagreement with a lot of his tactics/proposals, Trump actually is coming from a good place and wants to make the country better.  I appreciate a non-politician trying to drive a wedge into the stale and mostly impenetrable practices of American politics.

Mike Huckabee doubled down on his hypocritical war against “diabetes and heart disease”, stating that medicine needs to find a way to “cure” these diseases and in turn it would make health care infinitely more affordable.   The ignorance in this statement is atrocious.  Mike, who is easily 250lbs plus with a waist size surely in the mid 40’s, doesn’t realize the problem is people not being responsible for their health, not the lack of some magic vaccine to prevent obesity.  Get a clue, idiot.

Most of the other candidates had positive and negative moments but I would be hard pressed to identify who “won and lost”.  I drifted off during the closing statements, wishing we didn’t have 12 months of partisan hatred ahead of us.

The other day I was listening to one of the podcasts I listen to and heard one of the hosts describe how a good show host adds “texture” to what they are speaking about.  That adjective stuck with me.  Of course verbally, my texture is normally pretty flat. However I think my ability to apply “texture” while describing everyday thoughts and experiences via the written word is what I bring to the table.