“With all due respect, that’s a bunch of malarkey,” said Vice President Joe Biden Thursday night in the vice presidential debate. “I think the vice president very well knows that sometimes the words don’t come out of your mouth the right way,” Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan said. It’s quotes like these that represent a bigger problem in politics. As funny as they seem at the moment, they make me weary of politics. If the excessive amount of personal attacks and ridiculous comments  were eliminated from the Election 2012, we’d be on a better track. Instead of focusing on the actual problems at hand, often politicians make too many needless comments in debates and in our political system as a whole.

In an age of controversial politics and personal attacks aimed at the opposition, the incumbent Vice President and VP candidate Paul Ryan dished out one of the most interesting debates I have ever watched. Last Thursday night, Centre College in Danville, Ky. hosted the first and only vice presidential debate.

I hate to feel like that pessimistic, ambivalent Independent who criticizes and dislikes everyone, but the truth is that I don’t think that any one candidate has it all together. “If you don’t have a good record to run on, paint your opponent as someone people should run from,” said Paul Ryan. That statement seems to capture the spirit of both Obama’s campaign and Romney’s campaign this year, especially with the increase of attack ads and commercials.

I don’t know of any politician with whom I agree with entirely. I see the abundance of faults and strengths on both sides, and I thought about this the entire time I was watching the debate on Thursday night. Biden was good at staying on a lighter note, but he struck me as unprofessional. Frequent laughter, incredulous smiles and raised voices seemed to characterize Biden last night. Unfortunately, Paul Ryan didn’t do too well either in my opinion. He was the epitome of seemingly empty campaign promises.

The truth is, the states with the highest number of electoral votes (and with the highest populations) each have significant power in electing a president. Of the states with the highest electoral vote numbers, Texas is the only one that is expected to vote Republican. Other states, such as California, Florida, and New York will vote for Obama.

With that said, I find myself wondering if the US will ever elect a Republican in the future. Should I just start embracing Obama’s ideals, because he’s more likely to win? I don’t know the answer to that question, so I suppose that I’ll stick with thinking independently and individually evaluate which candidate is best fit for the job, instead of [in the future] always voting one way. At this point, I honestly do not know which presidential candidate is better, especially after seeing their vice presidential running mates’ debate.