Late Thursday nite, George 'macaca' Allen's campaign released quotes from books that his Democratic opponent Jim Webb has written in a pathetic last minute attempt to embarass Webb and take the focus off of pesky things like the Iraq war. Drudge posted the excerpts and the blogosphere erupted prompting a quick response from Webb in a radio interview on Friday in which he chastised the host for reading quotes that were inappropriate for daytime listening considering there might be children tuning in.
It doesn't end there, however. The Washington Post compiled a litany of similar smear tactics in its article 'The Year of Playing Dirtier'. 'Negative Ads Get Positively Surreal', the subtitle reads. Experts in political advertizing will tell you that candidates run negative ads because they work and every election brings the predictable decrying of the sleaze - yet it never ends and politicians wonder why the public doesn't believe they have any integrity.
Watching negative ads is like rubber-necking at a car accident. You want to look away but curiousity gets the better of you. And if you see something extremely disturbing, you wish later that you could get the image out of your head - but you can't.
We're fortunate here in Canada that we have a minimum of sleaze that attacks our senses during election campaigns. Often times, the political actions of candidates are disturbing enough without dragging in all kinds of personal attacks. The situation in the US however is so utterly disgusting that each election season leaves one wondering just how much lower they can go - and they never fail to show us.
O mischief, thou art swift to enter in the thoughts of desperate men!
-William Shakespeare
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