The media circus that has encompassed the first steps of the presidential campaign trail is appalling. It is also somehow appealing as a social study. What is apparent is that the general public has lost sight of the real issues in this upcoming general election.

Televised debates started off as a good idea in 1960, when the Nixon/Kennedy debate was broadcast as the first debate on national television. Since then, the media has taken huge strides away from the validity this once held.

The latest Republican debate was supposed to tackle the tough issues. Who has the best plans for healthcare? Social Security? The war? The economy? A dismal job market? Instead we got the Mitt Romney and Rick Perry show. It was obvious that MSNBC was only interested in what those two had to say with a few sidekicks.

Let’s think of the debate in a different way. Imagine it as a nightly local news broadcast with Rick Perry and Mitt Romney serving as co-anchors.

They are being fed questions from a teleprompter, or in this case Brian Williams and John Harris, who are waiting for responses from their softball-sized inquiries. The topics play right into the hands of Romney and Perry as they help create soundbites for their campaign.

Let’s kick it over to Michelle Bachmann for sports. Bachmann, who is one of the candidates that the media has decided to portray as eccentric and losing her mind, now has her chance to speak. She gets less than one minute to make her point before it is brought back to the lead anchors for their opinions.

Back to Romney and Perry. How do they feel about Social Security? At this point, the networks are praying that Perry stands by his controversial statement, and he does not fail to disappoint. What should have been a major crack in his foundation has now turned into an opportunity for applause.

Calling something a Ponzi scheme is an easy way to gain attention, and attention always comes out on top. It’s even easier when the thing you are comparing it to happens to be an underfunded and highly criticized government program.

For a quick break, we’ll let our crazy uncle Ron Paul chime in. The producers have now decided that Paul will play this part for the rest of the debate (and perhaps, the rest of his life). He’s allowed to talk, but only when he is positioned to make a wise crack. It’s comparable to the two old men on the Muppet Show, Waldorf and Statler, who continually butt into conversation just to make a snarky statement. Paul’s cohort in this is Newt Gingrich, who is also playing the ‘old and experienced’ card.

Throughout this whole debacle, the issues were skirted and dodged in a fashion that would make a filibuster look focused. So what can a young adult take away from all of this? Nothing.

Only you can make an informed decision, don’t let the media do it for you. It’s time to get away from the circus that we’ve helped create by being good citizens and blindly going along with this approach. Let’s get back to the facts and the real issues.