If you watched the Democratic and Republican debates last week, then you are one of a select few. Hopefully you at least saw some outtakes on “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report.”

Debate is perhaps a misnomer for these two events. Nothing of real substance was said by any of the candidates – and between the two parties there were 18 of them.

There was more nitty-gritty on the Republican side, and this was not for the better. Three of the candidates said they do not accept Darwin’s theory of evolution, and all of them, including abortion-rights supporter Rudy Giuliani, said they would be okay with the courts overturning Roe vs. Wade. One thing all of the GOP presidential wannabes lacked was charisma.

The Democrats were not much better. They spent all of their time attacking Barack Obama, the smiling, idealistic senator from Illinois, not realizing they were only making it more and more likely that Hillary Clinton will stomp all of them with her exceptional political machine and fundraising tactics. Democrats don’t seem to realize that even if most people aren’t sure they want another four to eight years of Republican rule, they are not likely to elect someone such as Clinton, about whom they have a higher negative opinion than any other candidate.

Yet the Democratic base seems to be with her, and if Obama cannot get some momentum somewhere in one of the early primary states, she will be the nominee.

At a time when most Republicans are not satisfied with any of their choices for the nomination for president, wouldn’t it be an excellent idea to offer them a Democratic candidate they can stomach? I can assure that for most Republicans, saying the words “Hillary Clinton” is sure to induce some amount of vomiting. That goes for many conservative Democrats and Independents as well.

So what if we face a situation in which the Iraq War is going badly with the president and the standard barer of his party married to the quagmire, and the Democratic nominee is reviled by a significant sector of the voting population? Well, if the situation is bad enough, and the Clinton machine is in top form, she may win the election with 49.6 percent of the vote. There are other options.

At the Web site Unity08.com, a group of former elected officials, businesspersons, activists, college students and other normal Americans are working to provide an alternative. They are seeking a ticket headed by any combination of a Democrat, a Republican or Independent. The nominees will be selected via an online convention, and then they will be offered the Unity08 nomination. Anyone presented with this option would be a fool not to take it.

The Unity Ticket is set to be selected in the first half of 2008. It is my hope that this will take place after the giant nationwide primary to take place in February so that the clear losers from each party will have a chance to vie for the nomination.

However, there are two men who are not waiting to see how “Ultra Mega Tuesday” is going to shape up. Republicans Mike Bloomberg, mayor of New York City, and Chuck Hagel, senator from Nebraska, have both expressed an interest in running for president as Independents and met last week to discuss… well, they didn’t really say.

I think either of them would make fine candidates if paired with a Democratic or Independent running mate – as long as that person’s name isn’t Joe Lieberman.