Other reasons this election is important
it’s election day here in the united States of America, and like millions of other political junkies across this nation I’m glued to some form of media. In my case, the internet, refreshing fivethirtyeight.com cnn.com/politics and my various other news feeds just to know the split second any results are in at all. It’s exciting it’s a strange combination of hope and anxiety.
For those of you who listen to the podcast or read this regularly you’ve probably gotten the hint that I’m a supporter of Obama. I want him to win, but not only for the reasons I’ve espoused previously.
This campaign season has been quite long, and throughout the general election we’ve seen two very different styles of campaigns run. In this battle of campaign styles I want a message sent to campaign mangers everywhere. Campaigns which focus primarily on a negative message must stop. I have been highly disappointed in the campaign of a local candidate for U.S. Senator here in Oregon. The campaign of Jeff Merkley has focused almost entirely on a single message in its advertising, “Gordon Smith is bad”. The trend of politics since 2000 has not been to get you to vote for someone, but against someone. And frankly I’m sick of it.
The Obama campaign has focused primarily on a positive message, Obama has told me what he’s going to do and how he’s going to do it. Sure he’s also tried to link Senator McCain with the policies of the current administration, but his Half-hour spot last week had nary a mention of his opponent, and at least for the television ads here in Oregon, they’ve been light on attacks and strong on issues. I contrast this with the McCain and Merkley campaigns where nearly every ad i have seen has been a character-based ad-hominem on the opposition. Ayers and Rev. Wright and “Socialist” against Obama, and “Smith’s frozen food factory hires illegal immigrants” in the Senatorial race. Frankly if it were not for the local Senatorial debate and work by Merley surrogates like the CFL-AIO I’d have no clue as to where Merkley stands on the issues. Same goes for McCain, if I were to base what I know solely on the advertising.
I hope this election sends a refferendum to those who run political campaigns that negative doesn’t work. I hope the american people don’t fall for such tactics. I want the level of political discourse in this country to rise above such childish strategies. We’ve seen it backfire in the North Carolina race between Dole and Hagan, may this trend continue.