Dirty diapers smell better than this

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  1. This is no worse than any other political season. It’s just that with the 24 hour news cycle and blogs we see everything everywhere.
    I remember watching CSPAN a few years ago when liberal historian Doris Kearns Goodwin harkened back to the good old days of LBJ. She fondly recounted a story about LBJ when he was running for congress. He asked a campaign worker to spread a story that his oppenent was a child molestor. When the campaign worker said, but it’s not . LBJ responded, yes, I know but I just want to see him deny it.
    The good old days of politics gone by. The big thing is we see what’s going on right in front of our eyes.
    What bothers me is the MSM has dropped any pretense of being fair. Just watch CNN this week with it’s special “Broken Government”. It’s nothing more than a campaign ad for the Dems. The constant barrage on this President by the press is unprecedented.
    By voting for the Dems what have you accomplished. You’ll elect a group of not-serious politicians who will help our enemies destroy us.
    Thanks, Polimom, thanks a lot.

  2. Polimom,
    I too voted early, and while I can’t say I didn’t vote for a single Republican, I did vote for a Democrat or two (in spite of the intellectual bankruptcy of the national Democratic leadership).
    I have already made my prediction for this year’s national election results, and I stand by it. However, should the Democrats take control of one of the two legislative branches, I don’t see it as the end of the world. I expect they will demonstrate again and again the truth of the Republican’s charge that they are not serious about defending the country. That may very well set up a landslide for the ‘much despised’ Republicans in 2008, especially if the Democrats nominate a candidate that can’t or won’t appeal to voters outside the Democrat’s base.
    Negative campaigning is distasteful; both sides engage in it. And if this year, the Republicans are using more of it, perhaps they believe that they must just to counter the overwhelming advantage the Democrats have with the allegedly ‘neutral’ MSM.
    One of the nice things about voting early is that you just don’t have to listen to the political spam anymore. Your die is already cast; just ignore it.

  3. If anybody is helping our enemies destroy us, it’s this administration. In fact, this administration isn’t just helping our enemies…they’re destroying us themselves.
    As for Polimom, I would’ve been happy either way you voted because it’s nice to know that intelligent, thoughtful people are out at the poles trying to make a difference.

  4. What defines a negative ad, in your observations, since you have seen so many this year to make you think that there are much more of them?
    I think in some form, negative ads will always be necessary to candidates. If you have an elected official that has served numerous terms, it is very difficult to bring something new to the race when people feel satisfied with the status quo. The burden is on the challenger to say why change is needed, and could you honestly say that all representatives have a perfect voting record in the eyes of all of their constituents? To some incumbents, just bringing up a vote they don’t want to advertise makes it “negative”, I guess as long as it doesn’t go in their favor it is.
    If the challenger is new to public office, then they can only make ads for so long that say how great a personality that person has, or how they feel on vague future issues. The incumbent has endless bills and actions that put them in a glowing light to talk about.
    To a point I do not feel that a negative ad can be avoided in all cases. However, the use of personal lives in negative ads is where I think it misses the mark. You are no longer “informing” the voter of anything really relevant. Unless the guy has murdered someone, I really just don’t care because I have to take it with a huge block of salt given that it is only being brought up by someone who wasn’t there and hates the other guy. But clearly the ads are made to target someone out there who does care, and for some reason they must think they work.

  5. Hi Jack,
    I agree, for the most part, with your description of negative ads, and why they’re used (and why we’ll always see some). It feels to me, though, as if this particular season has very little in the way of, “here’s how I would have voted on that issue, this is why, and here’s how it fits into my wider stance”.
    Nearly everything is presented in terms of the opposition’s wrongness, leading to the “we’re not them and they are evil” tone we’ve got. Those grow extremely stale in such quantity, and I would have been disgusted by this point anyway — but the character assassinations are so far over the top, I’m repulsed.

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