The presidential debates are over, and I didn’t watch a single one.

I actually stopped watching political debates back in the 1980s when I got tired of politicians dancing around or deliver an answer using a No. 9 shovel, and I got tired of seeing moderators tossing out “softball” questions. I guess the only debate I should have watched was the Edwin Edwards/David Duke debate during the 1992 Louisiana governor’s race, especially the question of what is Louisiana’s major industry, which Duke couldn’t answer. The stumble later produced a quip from Edwards, who told a group of reporters, “He (Duke) could have said Popeye’s.”

The problem I see with this presidential race is not the debates.

What really bothers me is the nagging fear neither of the two major candidates, despite their claims, are really that qualified to be president, and I suspect neither would have a successful first, or only, term as president.

Of the two, Hilary Clinton is closest to being the most qualified candidate, but she has a lot of baggage, real or imagined, and a Republican-controlled Senate might feel about her the way they felt about President Obama and work to see her fail. Trump isn’t anywhere near qualified to run for a city council seat, let alone president, and his ego and apparent lack of a sound knowledge of how government works could result in hostile relationship with Congress, regardless of which party has the majority. Me and I works well in your own company. It doesn’t work well with people who by law must approve much of what you want to do.

We have had a problem in this country with our leaders for sometime. We’ve seen our share of unqualified people take the office of president. Some have turned out to be good, in part because they had the ability to pick intelligent, qualified staffs and cabinet members and were able to organize.

The real tragedy, however, is we have people in this country who are truly qualified and have the ability to run this country and run it well. The reason most of them won’t seek office is because our campaigns have gotten progressively nastier and dirtier. Campaign finance laws allow organizations to get money to slam someone’s character anonymously and not be held accountable.

We have candidates who make wild claims and accusations against others with no shred of evidence and whine about being picked on when they are pushed to provide proof. We become more interested in the dirt than the substance of the candidate or their qualifications. We’d rather know if they have a lover, if they’re gay. We don’t worry about issues unless they affect us.

We have, I believe, reached the bottom of the barrel with this presidential race, and the result could be disastrous unless someone steps forward and provides intelligent and mature leadership and the rest of our government gets in line and begins cooperating.

John Surratt is a staff writer for The Vicksburg Post. You can contact him at john.surratt@vicksburgpost.com.