There's an old saying that we're known by the company we keep.  Well, if that's the case, then all three major presidential candidates need to step down immediately - as well as most elected officials.  At the same time, my friends in the national media need to get up off their butts and start talking to voters who really do want to know how they're going to make ends meet or whether they'll have a job tomorrow - and if any of these candidates will do anything to make life better.

If Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) has to live with the "baggage" of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, then Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) have their issues, too.

Clinton is married to a former two-term, finger-wagging president who really believes the moniker he earned as America's "First Black President".  Now, when pressed about the issue of race in this year's presidential campaign, he's the first to offer a red-faced, tight-lipped, teeth-clenched response to anyone - even with the cameras rolling.  Congressman James Clyburn (D-SC), a long time Clinton supporter, has publicly slapped Clinton across the knuckles and asked him to chill or never regain the confidence of African-American voters again.  On the campaign trail, Sen. Clinton loves to take all the credit for being First Lady when she took on health care and traveled to "some 80 countries".  But she's quit to deflect questions about the dozens of well documented questionable relationships and business deals that still taints the Clinton Presidency.

Then there's Sen. McCain who is straddling the fence.  One day he's seen on the White House lawn hugging short-timer President George W. Bush, and the next, he's criticizing the policies of the past eight years as being flawed and insensitive.  McCain is still trying to gain full support of his party, but he clearly is not winning any support by clinging onto the tattered coat tails of Bush.  McCain also doesn't seem to have to answer a daily barrage of questions about whether he agrees with President Bush or why the nation's president looks like a giddy old man oblivious of skyrocketing gas and food prices. 

So, to my dear friends in the media, if Obama is taking the fall for his friendship with his pastor, then Clinton and McCain need to pay the price, too.  How about a little 'fair and balanced' coverage?  Oh, I'm sorry, didn't mean to borrow that phrase from a major cable network.  But it just seems to me my media friends need to move on to other issues and stop fueling issues that only trivialize the presidential campaign process.