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Last Friday, the day after the final presidential debate, thousands of Mainers received automated phone calls paid for by the Republican National Committee and the McCain/Palin campaign claiming that Sen. Barack Obama “worked closely with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, whose organization bombed the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon, a judge’s home and killed Americans.”
Sen. Susan Collins publicly denounced these negative “robo calls,” and rightly so. It is surprising that McCain – who told debate moderator Bob Schieffer that he regretted “negative aspects of both campaigns,” and who was a victim of robo-call campaigning in 2000 – would resort to such dirty tactics in Maine and other important swing states.
Anyone who watched the debates on CNN and saw the meter measuring undecided voters’ response to the candidates would have noticed that when either candidate started speaking negatively, the response was negative. As Obama said last week, “politics as usual, as been practiced over the last several years, is not solving the big problems here in America.” That includes the negative ad campaigns and political mud-slinging that have come to define electoral politics in our country.
These sorts of tactics detract from the issues and facts that are important in informing voters’ choices. That is why The Maine Campus is publishing an all-politics issue on Monday, Oct. 27. The edition will include candidate side-by-sides and information on ballot initiatives. We urge our readers to not be swayed by negative campaigning and to keep abreast of the issues.
Related Posts:- Thoughtful voters are not swayed by celebrities’ views (February 4, 2008)
- Op-Ed: GOP a disservice to the welfare of America (April 27, 2009)
- Editorial: Wraps are back (May 6, 2002)
- Voters to decide UM funding (October 22, 2007)
- Opinion: Fear-based attacks by candidates are the definition of smear (October 30, 2008)
