Sadly, that was my reaction to the field for the world's most powerful position having been narrowed to four this week.

With apologies to Mike Huckabee and barring an unforeseen miracle, the Republicans have chosen either Mitt Romney or John McCain to carry their banner in November.

Across the deepening precipice we call partisanship, John Edwards dropped out Wednesday, leaving a Democratic duo of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Next Tuesday, 20 states will hold primaries (that's just super!), the results of which could further trim our intrepid quartet to a trio or even a pair.

Now is as good a time as any to ask ourselves a reasonable question: "How did we get here from there, assuming we know where the heck there was?"

It's rhetorical. Don't call.

Of course, after Super Tuesday, we could still have the Romney/McCain, Clinton/Obama dustups lingering far into the summer and even to the conventions.

If that comes to pass, the conventions would take on the demeanor of real political conventions rather than the part-coronation, part-debutante ball, part-rock concert, part-backyard barbecue they have become.

"Mr. Chairman, not that it matters at this point, but the great state of Oblivion, home of something really special I have momentarily forgotten, casts its 112 delegates for the next president of the United States. What's his name er her name oh, whatever."

Solid information

People might actually watch a political convention where the outcome is undecided when it starts.

Of course, political campaigns hardly sell when they are competing with a Britney motorcade to the hospital or a popular talk radio host speaking ill of the dead. It just doesn't get any better than that.

Candidates simply can't keep up with such cultural upheaval unless the mud starts to fly, under which ideas and dignity are usually buried.

Yes, political campaigns can be bruising, dirty affairs, a reality we seem to accept every couple of years as if we have no choice. We're resigned to trumpet the tenets of open, honest debate, but we'll decide in large part based on smears and suggestions, known these days as swiftboating.

Based on our experience, with four candidates left in the hopper, it will not be long before we'll be sifting through the caked and splattered spins of rumors and innuendoes about candidates.

Chances are good we'll shrug and paddle on.

Many will then cast informed votes because it's the right thing to do; others will turn away in disgust; a third group will vote with little or no solid information.

Hey, it's a democracy. It's our choice. We're simply playing the hand we've been dealt.

Obama and his campaign have tempered my gloom, although some consider his self-imposed civility a weakness. Go figure. Even Obama, however, who sees no value in demeaning his opponents, found himself doing so with a decided edge while on the defense in South Carolina last week.

Deep channel

We deserve the people we elect; we get the campaigns we tolerate.

As the field narrows in the race for president, our tendency has been to go negative, to get personal, to slash and burn. Doing so plays well against the pop singer's latest implosion or the big talker's bad taste.

But shouldn't observing an election for the highest office in the land be different from slowing to check out an accident?

My hope is that I am wrong about all this, that between today and Nov. 4, Mitt Romney, John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and their faithful legions prove me completely and utterly wrong.

Just in case, however, I'm steering my paddleboat into the deepest part of the channel.