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Keller @ Large: Nothing Matters In Presidential Race Until Debates Start

BOSTON (CBS) - In a way, it's a wonderful thing to see so many people so caught up in the campaign season. Caring – even if it's hyper-partisan and semi-coherent – is better than apathy any day.

Listen to Jon's commentary:

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But as someone who's watched more campaigns that I care to remember from the non-partisan sidelines, I've got some constructive advice for those of you hyperventilating over every twist and turn of this campaign – switch to decaf, quickly!

Remember back in July when President Obama, trying to convey a message about the inter-reliance between the public and private sectors, bungled the wording and appeared to be disrespecting the hard work of business owners? Republicans were ecstatic.

Here was the video proof they needed of their enemy's arrogance and hostility to free enterprise, the political wedge issue that would torpedo his re-election campaign. They jumped all over it, made it the centerpiece of their convention, and for awhile, Mr. Obama's numbers did suffer.

But not for long.

Remember last week, when Mitt Romney supposedly torpedoed his own campaign by trying to score political points off the murder of our people in Libya? Democrats rushed onto Twitter, the technological home of the clinically impatient, to proclaim the race over as Romney's numbers ticked down.

But lo and behold, the new Gallup poll has the race in a dead heat, and some swing state polls have narrowed again. Now watch the whole cycle repeat as the media paws over Romney's ill-advised dependency riff.

Take a tip from me, nothing much matters in this race until the debates start next month. Then the uncommitted voters will start making up their mind – do they really want to fire the incumbent, and is the challenger an acceptable replacement?

That's your election, right there.

Everything else is just Twitter bait. So hyper-partisans, save your health, switch to decaf.

Some of you might consider going straight to herbal tea.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. and 12:25 p.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

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