"...Not Necessarily An Actual Alternative...But An Incredible Likeness..."

There's, like, a very, like, important issue, like, at play in, like, the current presidential, like, campaign.

It, like, goes like this.

Name your favorite flavor of ice cream.

Let's say, for the sake of discussion, that your answer is vanilla.

Now, I'm going to ask you why you like vanilla more than any other flavor.

I can't begin to imagine, obviously, what you will say.

But I can predict, with dazzling accuracy, what you will not say.

You will not say it's because you don't like chocolate.

That response would, also obviously, seem silly, even a little stupid, to the both of us.

This flavor fracas forumulated in my frontal lobes the other day as I saw yet another of my Facebook friends/peers/co-horts and/or co-conspirators indicate, with the applicable click of the applicable button. that they "like" Mitt Romney.

Bringing the total of those who, in that context at least, "like" Mitt Romney to a pretty, like, healthy number.

Not being a professional pollster, I couldn't begin to tell you what John or Mary Q. Public are thinking as they determine who they like, why they like or what makes them like whatever it is that they, like, like..

And Joe The Plumber is obviously sitting this year's ballot battle out, so no insight to be found there.

Some of the aformentioned Facebook family, though, are people that I actually know, people that I consider friends, peers, co-horts and/or co-conspirators.

So, there's a case to be made that I might have a reasonably acceptable perspective on where they're coming from in the whole, like, process of liking.

And, in more than just a couple of cases, knowing those particular cases the way I do, I'm willing to predict, with more of that never ending supply of dazzling accuracy, exactly why they like Romney.

Because they don't like Obama.

Despite the admittedly deserved perception that I very much enjoy the sound of my own voice and the rhythm of my own rhetoric, I really do spend a lot of time reading, pondering, studying and, yes, naysayers, listening to what people have to say, what people are thinking, what people are, like, liking.

Frankly, I'd offer that any good writer couldn't be a good writer unless they had a capacity for hearing what's going on around them, given that without that input, their river of material would dry up pretty damn quick.

But, that's a position for another paper.

Can't, and won't speak, for you.

But here's what I'm hearing.

A lot of people who say they like Mitt Romney.

But almost nothing in terms of what they like about him.

Or what they like about, like, what they expect him to do when, and if, elected.

Or, like, what they see as the fundamental, and critically important, differences between what he will bring to that table in the Cabinet Room as opposed to that brought by Obama.

And, like, just for the record, although it's, like, frankly a little wearying to always have to throw in the obligatory disclaimer, here's, like, the obligatory disclaimer.

This piece is not an obvious, nor veiled, thinly or other wise, endorsement of Barack Obama for a second term.

That said, I will say this.

It seems a little silly and stupid that it would seem a little silly and stupid to choose vanilla over chocolate simply because one didn't like chocolate and yet it doesn't seem at all silly or stupid to choose Romney over Obama simply because one doesn't like Obama.

In the course of the aforementioned reading, pondering, studying and, yes, naysayers, listening to what my Facebook friends, family, peers, co-horts and/or co-conspirators are offering up in the way of a rationale for liking Romney, I have yet to read/see or hear a detailed articulation of why they do, in fact, like him, beyond, of course,  the rationale that he, if nothing else, isn't Obama.

Maybe it's just me, but I think "if nothing else" is a pretty weak foundation on which to build a choice for President of The United States.

Meanwhile, I really would welcome, and assuredly praise, any detailed articulation any of my friends, family, peers, etc, would care to pony up.

Working without that, for the time being, I can only fall back to what seems to be the only conclusion my friends, family, peers, co-horts and/or co-conspirators are making available at, like, this time.

With Romney, you're not sure what or when or how or how much or, even if.

With Obama, you pretty much know what.

Like it...

...or not.