I’m glad cyclocross is coming up because it’ll be a nice distraction from the other political racing season. While listening to NPR this morning, they had a story about GOP VP nominee Paul Ryan’s speech at the convention. And they’d play a clip, then either add some context or point out that, in fact, he was exaggerating or spinning or intentionally misleading. The NY Times also ran a “fact checking” story about Ryan’s speech. And a college mate writing for The Weekly Standard (a conservative publication) takes Politifact to task for not being factual!

While I appreciate the fact that the media is jumping on this whole “fact-checking” fad with Paul Ryan’s speech, I wonder if it’ll last through the Democratic convention. Don’t get me wrong, I’m as liberal as they come. But politics seems to create two alternate realities when it comes to “facts,” and I’m hoping this investigative meme has legs.

I am reminded of that cynical line: If you think there’s a difference between the GOP and Democrats, you’re either paying too much or too little attention.

I can’t decide if I’m burnt out on politics, or burnt out on the barebones coverage we get from the media that’s been slashed and cut and laid off so much that it’s equally interested in Ryan’s workout regime and Obama’s homebrew recipe (Disclaimer: I’m actually curious about the recipe myself.)

I am amazed at how the internet surfaces facts, but like the fake Ann Romney quote going around the other day or the spin from the left and right about a cat-fight between CNN’s Soledad O’Brien and GOP wag John Sununu, it all too often is fake, exaggerated or spun. And the mainstream media can’t or won’t keep up, as Jon Stewart so eloquently and passionately pointed out when he killed Crossfire on CNN. It’d be nice to have a substantive debate about something, anything, where the end result was not political points but an actual solution.

The polarization of reality itself leads me to believe I will vote based on soft, vague emotions like, “I just think Obama cares more about people” and that “Romney is more focused on helping business without regard for the social consequences.”