Perhaps it is because we are still in the primaries and the battle is between generally aligned party members, but I have been surprised so far by how few “issues” are actually part of the process. My memory tells me that at this time in 1980, 84, 88, 92, 96 and 2000, the political process was all about issues. Stem cell research, abortion, gay marriage, gun control…. It was front and center 24×7. But this year it seems to be all about personalities. The closest thing to debating the issues is the uproar over Romney’s Mormonism vs. Huckabee’s evangelism.

Which brings me to gun control. Four years ago gun control was an important enough issue that we were presented with the totally incongruous picture of John Kerry posing with a shotgun during the primaries, presumably to convince midwestern voters that he wasn’t going to come and pry their precious firearms away. In fact, as if the image of John Kerry with a bunch of good old boys wasn’t comical enough, we got to see Dick Gephardt in camouflage hunting garb, apparently unaware of which end of the gun the shells were ejected from. Such things always give me a huge lift from the pure comic appeal of them, but that has been strangely absent from this campaign so far.

I’ve also seen virtually no attempt to cozy up to the gay and lesbian lobby, a general lack of solidarity with the feminist movement and have not yet seen one Democrat publicly parade into “their” church so the average person can say “see, that Obama is a god-fearin’ man”.

Have I just been missing it, or has this race been almost entirely about personality and image so far?