Reply #40: Have you noticed [View All]

[Nicholas_J]

Since Dean dropped out, the campaign for the nomination has been marked by an air of civility, and a greater sense of unity against Bush, rather than baseless attacks on the other candidates.

Dean began the negative campaigning with the general statements about "Bush Lite" and representing the "Demcratic WIng of the Democratic Party" attacking and misrespresenting Kerry's record while he was hospitalized for cancer surgery, stating that Graham would be 70 years old when he ran for a second term if he was the nominee and won while Graham was hospitalized for bypass surgery, then goin on to attack and misrepresent Edwards record in San Fransisco, almost immediately stating that he knew it was false as soon as the debates in SAn Francisco were over, sending an apology to Edwards privately, rather than publicly, also attacking Kerry's record. His misrepresentation of his own statements on raising the age of Social Security and having to then reverse himself and apologize for that, going on to making statements about Kerry's voting record on aid to mid-west farmers that were actually the records of another Senator, Bob Kerrey, then his paid staffers trying to infiltrate Kerry's campaign in Iowa.

As soon as Dean left the campaign, Edwards and Kerry maintain civil campaigns towards each other, recogning and publically noting, along with each others differnces, their opponents strengths. The campaign immediately moved from the worse of negative campaigning, to the the best of positive campaigning in a matter of days.

I have an editorial from a Vermont newspaper that points out that Dean had a record for abusive campaigning while he was Governor, and pointed out that such campaigning could (and indeed did) eventually negatively effect Deans own campaign:

Dean bites Democrats


One certainty about the 2004 presidential primary campaign is that Howard Dean will not be named Mr. Congeniality by his fellow Democratic contestants...

Although sometimes loose with the truth, Dean's attack strategy seems to have paid off. He has put his opponents on the defensive and has drawn considerable attention from political commentators and Democratic contributors. Polls show him neck and neck with Kerry in the critical New Hampshire primary and closing in on the favored Gephardt in the Iowa caucuses.

All this no doubt delights the Republicans, who are busily raising huge sums of money for next year and love to see the Democrats engaged in fratricidal combat...

As Dean becomes a top-tier candidate, however, his casual approach to facts and abusive tactics against his opponents could get him into serious trouble -- and severely damage Vermont's reputation for political civility and intellectual honesty.

http://www.sover.net/~auc/deanbites.htm

In the end, this style of campaigning was one of the factors that caused Denas campaign to crash and burn.

Thursday nights debates in Los Angeles showed the best side of politics and politicians, and indicated the quality and character of all of the candidates involved, not just the two frontrunners, but all of the remaining candidates. Any one of remaining candidates has the character necessary to bring to the presidency.

Focusing on issues and more important, the common goals of all of the Democratic candidates, as well as bringing to the forefront the months of wasted time due to the negativity that was brought into the campaign.