[Hoot Gibson]

I find it more and more difficult to find the truth in this mess of a campaign. I am surprised to find posters that I hold in the highest regard using information from questionable sources. This has become a competition that doesn't offer positive informed opinions to support one candidate or the other; rather, it has become a mud slinging free- for-all to distort facts only to down grade one candidate or the other.

One source that has been used is this thread is "The Mirror", a news source that I find more than questionable when it comes to their credibility. While they have reported on the alleged rape of this teenager at a sex party held at Epstein's residence (not Trump's), no one appears to be questioning why a teen aged girl is partying at the apartment of a known sex offender or why she has waited 20+ years to file a suit. I'm certain it being a Presidential election year is only a coincidence.

This same news source has reported on Cruz and the fear that perhaps Cruz's daughter exhibited behavior consistent with "rape culture" when she repelled from a hug that Cruz had offered to her on stage. This stuff makes me sick.

I wish that we could all be more objective in our posting about this political race, and far less personal, but I don't expect any changes.

The leading GOP candidate for president was just hit with a $100 million lawsuit in which the plaintiff alleged that Trump raped her when she was a teenager. What part of that report is not true, Granny? Was there no lawsuit filed? Did the plaintiff not make those claims?

Fox News Channel would have been content to have ignored the story and that is not what a free media is supposed to do. Should the media just ignore all of the lawsuits that are entangling Trump's campaign?

How many of these Trumpsters attacked Trump and his minions Roger Stone and David Pecker for alleging that Ted Cruz engaged in affairs with five different women? None of them that I recall. Cruz is not the only GOP candidate who has been slimed by Pecker's National Enquirer during this campaign.

Lawsuits are matters of fact, just as the non-binding 2012 Colorado straw poll was a matter of fact. The source of the news should not matter if what is being reported is factual. Political campaign staffs should not be dictating news coverage.

Trump has an extremely shady personal history and the American media has done the public a real disservice with its biased reporting and relentlessly chasing after ratings.

Likewise, our media has done a very poor job covering Hillary Clinton's latest scandals. The woman should be rotting in jail already. There is no way that we should be looking forward to a November election between two sleazy characters like Trump and Clinton.

I have always known that liberals could not care less about the extreme character flaws of the Clinton family. Until Donald Trump came along and suddenly declared himself to be a conservative Republican, I thought that conservatives had higher expectations for their candidates.

I love the British tabloids like the Telegraph, Daily Mail, and Times, because when they "break" stories that the American media would prefer to ignore, it forces our media to begrudgingly cover the same stories.

As for being objective, all we can do is try. I can find no reason to vote for Trump and no reason to vote for Hillary. I know that Trumpsters cannot fathom why a conservative like myself would not jump at an opportunity to hitch a ride on the Trump bandwagon, but I would rather walk across broken glass and my mind will not be changing.

Trump and Hillary are both extreme threats to the general welfare of this nation. I cannot fathom how anybody could support either of them with any enthusiasm, although I cannot fault anybody for trying to discern the lesser of two evils and reluctantly voting for "it."

The Bushes, Dole, McCain, and Romney were all clearly lesser evils than their Democrat opponents. I had decided before this campaign began that I would never vote for the lesser of two evils again in a presidential election.

I never imagined that I would ever have any trouble deciding whether Hillary Clinton or any Republican opponent would be the lesser evil. If Trump wins the nomination, then the GOP has failed to earn my support this fall.