By the time you read this in print, the first presidential debate will be over. Who won?

I guess your answer depends on which candidate you favor. The national opinion polls say most everyone has already made up his or her mind, so, absent a game-changing event, the debates will most likely not count for much.

The pundits say this election is like a job performance review. It is a referendum on how the nation views how the incumbent has performed during the last three and a half years. After all the political rhetoric ends, the voters will make the final decision.

The Maine senate race is also a job interview. Over the years, Susan Collins has performed well, even in years when the state favored the other party's presidential candidate. She also has consistently used her seniority to keep Bath Iron Works supplied with Naval shipbuilding contracts. As the political pros say, she has delivered the bacon to the folks back home.

Her opponent, Democrat Sara Gideon, the Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives, has mounted the toughest challenge Collins has faced in years.
Together the campaigns have raised millions, much of which has been, or will be, spent on TV advertising. During “Jeopardy” the other night, both candidates' advertising was nasty, snarky and smarmy.

Despite Collins’ record, many believe the voters will base their decision on her vote approving Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. At our house, it seems that every time my bride and I sit down in the evening for an adult beverage and a snack, the phone rings.

If it is not the fake Medicaid card scam or the "your car warranty is about to expire" gimmick, it is usually someone with a strange accent asking a series of questions seeking to discover our political favorites. Some of these are really campaign ads called push polls. The caller usually begins like this: Do you favor Candidate 1 or Candidate 2?

Then they say what if you knew Candidate 1 (the guy who is paying for the poll) is a patriotic American who loves his mother, while Candidate 2 believes the world is controlled by robots sent to Earth by little green men from Mars who are secret communists? Which candidate would you favor?

If you had to grit to say "Candidate 2," they would change the pitch to suggest that if he or she was a child molester, an animal hater who once stuffed his little sister into the clothes dryer, would you still favor Candidate 2?

This pitch goes on and on like this until you either say you favored Candidate 1 or hung up in hopes the Medicare scam guy would call back.

Last week, one of our readers, and I suppose more than one, took offense when I mentioned a Maine veteran reader was offended by reports the president called our soldiers "losers" and "suckers." In a letter to the editor, our critic said those remarks were in dispute. By repeating them, he suggested I joined the ranks of fake news.

Thankfully, we live in a country where we have free speech. A glance at the headlines will remind you that other nations like to jail folks like me when we write unflattering things about the dear leader. They also jail folks like you if you dare to speak out against those in power.

Americans like to disagree. It is part of our DNA. The back and forth arguments about people, policy and politics, are part of why Jefferson, Madison and the rest of our founders adopted the First Amendment to our Constitution.

We are just weeks from electing the 46th president. The political rhetoric is just getting warmed up.  A wise man once told me that when you live in a country with free speech, sooner or later, someone is going to disagree with you. There is no doubt, dear reader, that many have strong feelings on this election. Voting is already underway in some states, and national polls say only a small percentage of voters are undecided.

Along with his criticism suggesting we refrain from writing about politics, our letter writer offered this suggestion: "Just stick to and keep the fluff stuff flowing on, about Mable next door baking pies," he wrote.

Believe me, dear reader, I would much rather write about apple pies, especially those crafted by my bride. Even the thought of a hot apple pie exiting her oven makes my taste buds water. The anticipation of sitting down with a steaming slice of apple pie, paired with a sliver of sharp cheddar cheese and a hot cup of Joe, is enough to get my old bones rattling.

Stay tuned. The next month will get interesting, very interesting.

Stay safe. Be well.