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genie
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 Posted: 11/02/04 - 16:54 Post subject: Negative campaigning: turnoff or turn on?
And what I mean by turn-on comes from comments my cow-orker made today about the American public being attracted to sensationalist TV and "reality shows" and Jerry Springerlike drama rather than cold, hard "boring" facts. She disagrees with me that there should be less mudslinging and more stick to the facts about why YOU are the best candidate, not why your opponent is a size twelve losah....and she says because of our fascination with Crap TV, no one, or at least, much fewer numbers, would tune in and pay attention to the election at all if candidates just stuck to the issues and sold themselves instead of damning their opponents. She thinks "that's what people in general want and they'd be put to sleep by a bunch of boring voting records and lists of achievements, etc...." so in turn, they get what they deserve.
What do y'all think?
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Cappy
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Posted: 11/02/04 - 17:05 Post subject:
I think negative campaigning sucks. Tell me about you not the other guy (girl)
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Gogirlgo
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Posted: 11/02/04 - 17:24 Post subject:
I think it also has to do with the inherent laziness of a lot of people in this country, who want to be told what to think in a five-second soundbite. No analysis for them, zzz, yawn, requires too much thought.
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jrjo
Gone Fishin
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Posted: 11/02/04 - 17:25 Post subject:
I'm blaming Howard Dean. I think he began the tenor of this campaign early.
Yes, definitely, I so hope future campaigns become totally about discussing what a candidate would do versus the complaint rhetoric.
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Cappy
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Posted: 11/02/04 - 17:36 Post subject:
| jrjo wrote: | I'm blaming Howard Dean. I think he began the tenor of this campaign early.
Yes, definitely, I so hope future campaigns become totally about discussing what a candidate would do versus the complaint rhetoric. |
Haven't seen his name to much these final weeks
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MechEngDropout
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Posted: 11/02/04 - 17:45 Post subject:
I hate it. Running a close second to excessive commercials, the debates were terrible. Instead of answering questions, they'd just talk about the mistakes the other candidate made regarding the topic.
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genie
Master of Prissface
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Posted: 11/02/04 - 17:45 Post subject:
| Gogirlgo wrote: | | I think it also has to do with the inherent laziness of a lot of people in this country, who want to be told what to think in a five-second soundbite. No analysis for them, zzz, yawn, requires too much thought. |
Or the inherent busyness of some people in this country who don't have time to do hours upon hours of reading. Even if the debates were actually useful and informative, that would help a lot of people.....or some good campaign platform information in a relatively readable form, not these silly campaign ads: "so and so is a liar/cheated on his wife/his taxes/has 17 illegitimate children/is evil/is stupid/yada yada......not everyone has time to do an extensive amount of research. I don't think doing your job that pays your bills and taking care of your family and/or other responsibilities should be put aside just to study campaign literature for months on end. Just MHO. I'd just appreciate concise factual info, not crap and mudslinging. My time and energy is valuable and limited, thankyouverymuch. I'd rather not waste it.
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Gogirlgo
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Posted: 11/03/04 - 16:33 Post subject:
| genie wrote: |
Or the inherent busyness of some people in this country who don't have time to do hours upon hours of reading. Even if the debates were actually useful and informative, that would help a lot of people.....or some good campaign platform information in a relatively readable form, not these silly campaign ads: "so and so is a liar/cheated on his wife/his taxes/has 17 illegitimate children/is evil/is stupid/yada yada......not everyone has time to do an extensive amount of research. I don't think doing your job that pays your bills and taking care of your family and/or other responsibilities should be put aside just to study campaign literature for months on end. Just MHO. I'd just appreciate concise factual info, not crap and mudslinging. My time and energy is valuable and limited, thankyouverymuch. I'd rather not waste it. |
I just don't think anyone is so busy that they can't take a little time to become more informed than they would from watching a commercial or sound bite. It's only a waste of time if one perceives it as such.
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Cappy
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Posted: 11/03/04 - 16:41 Post subject:
| Gogirlgo wrote: |
I just don't think anyone is so busy that they can't take a little time to become more informed than they would from watching a commercial or sound bite. It's only a waste of time if one perceives it as such. |
I agree, especially in this era of accesibility to information via the internet. I made sure to visit both party's websites, for all the offices that I was voting for. Then went and did my own research.
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kattzoo
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Posted: 11/03/04 - 16:48 Post subject:
I hate negative campaigning. It is a definite turn off for me, and was part of the reason I voted the way I did this time. (not that either side was lacking mud on their hands in any shape or form) Tell me what you're going to do and your plan to do it. I've already figured out you don't like your opponets way or you wouldn't be running against them.
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genie
Master of Prissface
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Posted: 11/03/04 - 17:01 Post subject:
| Gogirlgo wrote: |
I just don't think anyone is so busy that they can't take a little time to become more informed than they would from watching a commercial or sound bite. It's only a waste of time if one perceives it as such. |
A little time is one thing, but what constitutes laziness, in your opinion? I'm not a TV watcher anyway so the time I'd waste watching reality shows or fluff is spent doing something else. Just curious. I don't mind surfing the candidates' websites to see what their claims are, and maybe looking up their voting records to see if they can back their claims up, but I don't have hours and hours to read every source out there and watch every news show to make double-triple sure of every little pickayune fact.
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Gogirlgo
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Posted: 11/03/04 - 17:05 Post subject:
| genie wrote: |
A little time is one thing, but what constitues laziness, in your opinion? I'm not a TV watcher anyway so the time I'd waste watching reality shows or fluff is spent doing something else. Just curious. |
Laziness is an inherent unwillingness to find out more about issues that will impact one and around which one will vote (and doubtless complain). It doesn't have a definitive time element. Some people can get what they need in 20 minutes; for others it would take longer. Reading the paper is a good way to at least know what the issues are, and then going from there for a little more research. I don't think that's particularly taxing.
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genie
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Posted: 11/03/04 - 17:10 Post subject:
| Gogirlgo wrote: |
Laziness is an inherent unwillingness to find out more about issues that will impact one and around which one will vote (and doubtless complain). It doesn't have a definitive time element. Some people can get what they need in 20 minutes; for others it would take longer. Reading the paper is a good way to at least know what the issues are, and then going from there for a little more research. I don't think that's particularly taxing. |
OK, that's fair. I can agree with that. 
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RexRacer
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Posted: 11/04/04 - 11:41 Post subject:
I don't think there's anything wrong with saying what's wrong with your opponent, but all too often the statements rarely jibe with the facts.
I'm more concerened about the idea that politicians say things and 'make hay' with things they know to be false, or that directly contradict their actions. They're all afraid to be honest.
Look at Bush/Kerry on War:
Kerry said "We will win the War on Terror when I'm preisdent!" Now both he and Bush know that victory in that sense is impossible, and they have said as much, but Kerry didn't want to be painted as the weak guy.
Bush mocked Kerry's 'sensitive war' comments repeatedly. But he's negotiating like hell with people, realizing what a bull in a china shop unrestrained US military power could be in the Middle East. I heard Cheney use the 'S' word five times speaking about Fallujah and Al-Sadr on Tim Russert's show. But Bush was afraid to cloud his rhetoric of tough and unwavering with the reality of what he was actually doing in Iraq.
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coachmarkos
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Posted: 11/04/04 - 12:47 Post subject:
Well pretty much everyone says they don't like them.
But they still run them. Why?
They work.
It's like a comedian I saw once...he asked the crowd how much they enjoyed X rated movies...the crowd of course sat there silent, and then he commented, Man, NOBODY watches these things! They must be losing money left and right!
Nobody admits to liking negative ads...but when done well, and they aren't in overkill, they are effective.
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