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re: Smears
azstrummer — (archived)

Ok, let me get this right. If you put out an ad attacking a candidate by using their own words and actions in an undistorted manner, it's a smear?

Well Tom, here in Arizona that's what I saw the Democrats doing against their Republican opponents. They didn't need to "smear" them. They simply had to tell the truth and highlight their voting records and their support of the president.

I actually went and researched things that the Democrat candidates claimed in their ads that I hadn't heard of before and guess what? They were complete and accurate. They didn't need to embellish or distort quotes. The facts were out there in the public record for everyone to see.

There's a difference between a negative attack ad which the Dems were certainly guilty of producing and a true smear. The difference is in the truth of the accusation. Even you should be able to admit that the Republicans for the most part did a lousy job of staying within the law over the last decade and it was well within political ethics for the opposition to point that out. Surprisingly, and maybe it was simply because the Dems had no power and little numbers, but they actually did a pretty good job of keeping their noses clean legally.

Just maybe Tom, in the case of George Allen's defeat, it wasn't the Dems smearing him that caused him to lose but instead that he was a sleazebag.

Art

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