Politics have evolved greatly within the US from when they had started. Politicians have always kept to the issues, providing information on their beliefs, and convincing fellow Americans to vote for their party because of their platforms. That concludes the positive campaigning, but what about all the negative campaigning? Since our first President there has always been negative campaigning. But since the invention of campaign ads on television, Politics has changed greatly in its negative campaigning. All over politicians used the television to communicate to all Americans providing an "inside look" on a candidate that may not be always true.
Senator Elizabeth Dole is no different from any of those politicians attempting to strike down their opponents by running negative campaign ads. Among the recent McCain attacks on Obama, Senator Elizabeth Dole ran an attack ad against Kay Hagan calling her "godless." Here is a video of that.
Dole's mudslinging tactics are but minuscule to the many attack ads that are constantly being made by many politicians. Polling had shown that voters are attracted to negative campaign ads, but do not necessarily like them. How do you feel about negative campaigns ads that are complete malarkey?
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
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3 comments:
I feel that these attack ads are not exactly childish, but they are still not very mature.
A recent attack McCain has been promoting is going back to Obama's use of campaign money. Obviously voters are drawn to this political mudslinging, but I think people are missing the point. Obama is using his money to get his positions televised, what's wrong with that? Why is McCain attacking him for using money?
It's not one sided though. Obama has made many attacks on McCain's policies. I'm sick of hearing this over and over again. Negative campaigning is going to happen. People need to get over it.
I think negative ads contribute to democracy and they are just as important and beneficial as positive ads. Not all negative ads help a candidate gather support, most of the time, people who use negative ads actually lose support because, as you've mentioned, they make them look immature/childish.
Negative ads about policy are one thing. Accusing a former Sunday School teacher of being Godless is just pandering to bigotry.
Obama's ad campaign was not nearly as high-minded as the rest of his operation, including some questionable characterizations of McCain's ideas and record. That, however, is nothing like this outrageous Dole ad. Don't settle "for they all do it" -- fudging statistics is not remotely close to suggesting that an opponent is a 5th columnist or closet atheist.
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