Do the TV debates show just how vacuous politics has become?

I think that the TV debates were a very, very good idea. They simplify things and allow people who are not normally interested in politics to dip their toes in and make their mind up based on those leading the parties.

Yet the sudden emergence of Nick Clegg (and therefore Liberal Democrats) as a serious political contender does remind me a lot of Barack Obama's Presidential campaign. It had a good image, it was clean, smart and represented "change". But hang on just a second - what policy are the public backing Clegg on? What policies, what actions were the American people voting Barack Obama in as President to take?

I've asked a lot of people who have warmed to Nick Clegg in recent days what he said that they support. And not one of them has replied with a policy proposal, simply the fact that he came across better than Gordon Brown and David Cameron. That is in a way unsurprising, but in another really quite scary. Politics is ultimately about handing individuals power that they will use to influence the lives we live. The electorate dishing out power based solely on personalities is very dangerous.