I was watching the presidential debates Thursday night, and I could not help but think about how Americans tend to make opinions based primarily on outward appearances and perceptions, rather than a strict basis in facts. This goes at least as far back as the first presidential debates between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy, when media analysts said that Nixon’s five o’ clock shadow made him look tired and vaguely sinister, costing him numerous votes. Is that a serious reason to vote against a presidential candidate?

This dependence on “spin” is not restricted to politics though. Look at the recent Koby Bryant rape case. How many of his fans supported him whole-heartedly without even waiting to see the outcome of the trial and whether Bryant was actually guilty of rape or not? On a more local level, my school recently had a state teacher of the year honoree. Do you want to hear how the selection was made? Each high school in the state selects one county teacher of the year, and those candidates fill out application forms for the statewide honor, an application which basically consists of their touting their own accomplishments. The candidates which write the most impressive applications are then selected for personal interviews, at which they again are required to defend their own credentials. At no point in the process are the candidates observed teaching, or any of their peers or students interviewed. Basically the state teacher of the year is honored for being an outstanding writer, a successful interviewee, and egotistical enough to beat their own drum repeatedly.

But that is the American way. Isn’t the current presidential election more about spin and misdirection than substance and past accomplishments? We have a president touting his handling of the economy, and many middle-class Americans believing that, when his administration has lost more jobs than any president since Herbert Hoover, and he has also created the biggest federal budget deficit in history. Yet many Americans feel more comfortable with him as a person than the other candidate who was a Vietnam War hero. Perhaps I am an anomaly, but I feel more comfortable with facts and honesty than spin and misdirection. I hope that does not make me un-American in any way.