So I was watching the news on television as I got ready for work this morning.

As usual, much of the coverage centered around the presidential race. Sarah Palin was coming to Noblesville, so the reporters were talking about that.

I wasn't paying too much attention ... until I heard one of them refer to the presidential candidates as "the contestants."

How telling.

In my mind, this is an incredibly important election. Issues that need immediate and real remedies are at hand. The country is in a financial tailspin. Our great nation is in desperate need of a leader who can hit the ground running in January and turn things around.

But in many ways, the election has turned into a circus; nothing more than a popularity contest. Sometimes I watch what's going on, and I feel like there was more interest in actual issues during the elections for the president of my high school class than there is now during a presidential race.

I've gotten letters and Speak Outs here at the Banner that are disturbing, because people are telling me they're supporting candidates based on who is most like them. That is frightening to me.

I am like Barack Obama in some ways. I never knew my biological father and was raised by my mother and the man she married when I was young. Like John McCain, I either prospered or perished with regard to school subjects. I excelled in things I loved ... composition, band, literature ... but did only enough studying to get by in things that I considered dull, such as math and science (I recently found my old algebra folder from high school, and realized that not once since then have I ever had to solve for X).

I'm from New Jersey, so I grew up in the same area of the country as Joe Biden. Like Sarah Palin, I have bagged a deer and know how to dress it and cook it.

I've already decided how I'm going to vote, but it has nothing to do with what I have in common with the candidates. Quite frankly, I don't want someone just like me in office.

I want someone smarter than I am.

When you vote, just remember you're not casting your vote from prom queen. You're deciding who will be the leader of the free world for the next four years and the person who will take over for them should they not be able to serve the entire term.

Take it seriously.