Quindlen: Time to Get Serious, America

Voters must cut through the fog of spin and take their votes seriously, writes Anna Quindlen in Newsweek. Amid bickering over whose lipstick is on what pig, “Nothing being said has much to do with the future of this country.” A vote, Quindlen urges, is a promise to “look past cheap slogans and lazy alliances to try to find a way to make America worthy of a new generation.”

Quindlen blames the race’s sorry state on both campaigns and the media, though she singles out John McCain for "again hedging principle in favor of victory”—but allows that the problem is larger than either candidate. Is America so insecure “that we can't bear a person who stands on principle”?