A distinct lack of enthusiasm

Could this be the year when they hold an election and no one bothers to vote? I'm sensing a distinct lack of enthusiasm for both major parties. We just completed a 1400-mile drive from Upper Michigan to southeast Texas. I think I could count the number of bumper stickers I saw supporting Romney on the fingers on one hand and have a few fingers left over. Not that Obama fared much better -- there were more Obama stickers, but most of them looked like they'd been on the vehicles since 2008 -- they weren't this year's graphics.

The same was true of yard signs -- they were close to nonexistent, and the ones we did see tended to be almost 100% concerned with local or state elections. In fact, the highest number of yard signs we saw were fairly close to here -- coming down Texas Highway 96, we saw a lot of signs for two candidates apparently competing for the position of district judge. Nothing for any other office seeker, though, on either a state of national level, and it was like that for most of the drive.

Missouri probably had the most signage out -- and it was unintentionally amusing. There'd be a whole clump of signs for Republican candidates for various state offices, like Peter Kinder (currently lieutenant governor and hoping to get re-elected), and then a few miles down the Interstate, well removed from all the other Republicans, there'd be a lonely sign for Todd Akin, the Republican running for U.S. Senate. Akin is, of course, the guy who made the mistake of saying what he was actually thinking by claiming that if it's a legitimate rape a woman won't get pregnant. It's a medieval belief that's apparently fairly common among some persons whose intellectual development stopped in about the 12th century, but it's also something most  Republicans are smart enough to avoid saying publicly. Since Akin opened his mouth, other Republicans have been treating him like he has leprosy -- and that apparently holds true even for their yard signs. Kinder et al. don't seem to want to remind voters they're part of the same party as Akin.