Sunday, October 29, 2006

Negative Campaign Ads

I am so sick and tired of negative campaign ads. You would think that people running for office would want the voters to know their record, what they would try to do if elected, etc. Instead we get an almost endless supply of extremely negative attack ads which often have little more than the merest shred of truth in them. I truly question the intelligence of anyone who would let their opinion of a candidate be swayed by an advertisement by someone with a vested interest in making the other person look bad.

I see ads calling an opponent "the biggest spender in Congress" as if one person decides and spends money there. I see ads infering that a black politician is consorting with white prostitutes to play the race card in a southern state. I see ads in which the scenes in one candidate's novel are portrayed as his opinion of women in real life. I see national ads that portray one party's position as being nothing that is related to what that party actually is saying.

These ads have been getting worse and worse over the years. I would love to see the voters entirely reject any candidate who dares to run one. Tell me what your positions are. Tell me how they differ from those of your opponent (and be honest about your opponent's position). Tell me what you will try to do in congress, what committees you'd like to serve on, what your special interests are. Don't do dirty attacks on your opponent because you're not winning. Reach me through intelligent discourse, not though mud-slinging.

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