tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15935045.post115993416627328705..comments2024-01-19T02:23:51.665-06:00Comments on Journal Wunelle: Had Enough Yet?wstachourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12447198404608861357noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15935045.post-1160106912185301592006-10-05T22:55:00.000-05:002006-10-05T22:55:00.000-05:00The amazing thing about the negative advertising i...The amazing thing about the negative advertising is that while everyone claims to dislike it and says that it turns them off on all candidates, it seems to work. At least this is what the candidates claim. They seem to know that negative ads are widely despised, but their research tells them that in spite of that the ads work.<BR/><BR/>It is not too hard to see why. It is much easier to make folks believe bad things about your opponent than to believe good things about you. And when you can lie with impunity about your opponent there is no limit to the bad things you can say about them.<BR/><BR/>Unfortunately, while the ads probably do give one candidate an advantage over another, the side effect is that they drag down both candidates. The advantage that one candidate gains is not due to an elevation of his standing, but due to a lesser lowering of his standing relative to his opponent's.<BR/><BR/>Luckily we have only a few more weeks to decide who we hate the least.Jeffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13860812772132171202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15935045.post-1159981732058109272006-10-04T12:08:00.000-05:002006-10-04T12:08:00.000-05:00Amen.I just think you have the tiger by the tail w...Amen.<BR/><BR/>I just think you have the tiger by the tail with this topic, since, for me anyway, it just taps into a bottomless wellspring of cynicism and corruption, with the very basest and darkest side of human nature lurking here. Time and time and time again over the years I've listened to politicians in their ads disparage negative campaigning, but, like Hitler and violence, in the end you must match the weaponry trained against you. It takes an extraordinary person--and perhaps an even more extraordinary message--to steer clear of this vortex. And the irony is that the more disillusioned we become about Congress the less open we are to messages that stray too far from our comfort zone. (And anyway, how far can you stray from that comfort zone? "It's time to clean up this mess?" Who doesn't say that?)<BR/><BR/>On a related subject, I see the stuff going on now with Mark Foley and the Republicans' attempts to circle the wagons (covering their ass when the same people found Clinton's dalliances with a consenting adult an impeachable offense), and I am reminded that if politicians are poison, those who attempt to claim the moral high ground are infinitely moreso. I just don't trust anything said to me by any of them, and less so when they are attempting to promote "decency" or to justify harsh measures. Farther to fall.<BR/><BR/>I am no card-carrying Democrat--I hold them in the same contempt I hold all politicians--but it is unfathomable to me that every single Republican running for election in November would not be defeated. What we have now can hardly conform to any civilized person's vision of what our society should look like.wstachourhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12447198404608861357noreply@blogger.com