I tend to agree with you about the “mud-slinging”. To me, it’s useless bickering generally over things that don’t have to do with the campaign. Stuff like the attacks on John Kerry’s military career or his wife’s fortune or Chelsea Clinton’s awkward childhood appearance or how old Barbara Bush appears or Nancy Reagan’s astrologers. It’s also niggling nitpicking over so-called half-facts that aren’t the whole truth and only serve to call the other person into question and in a sense dishonor him or her.

I do think it’s appropriate to hold our candidates responsible for their legislative affairs and even to their promises, but I also think it’s important to hold our candidates to the standards they set for each other. For example, if Obama says Edwards is “unelectable” for some reason, then he better make certain that he doesn’t also fit the bill. I think it’s not only time for responsible legislators, but non-hypocritical ones.

Unfortunately for me, I’ve been listening to the all-politics/all-the-time that’s been on t.v. the last few days. I’m far more impressed with the candidates when they aren’t in the same room together. I kind of have to admit that while I still plan to vote for a Democrat who’s pretty much not even showing in the polls if he makes it to our primary, I no longer feel like I might be physically ill should Hillary Clinton or Obama get the nomination. In fact, I would prefer Hillary over Obama at the moment and I certainly would prefer either of them over Edwards (if he would just stop saying the same thing over and over…), but that’s if I had to pick a front-runner.

It’s kind of funny — maybe it’s because I don’t watch the performances — but I get a different opinion of Hillary Clinton. She may have tweaked her campaign style here or there, but she hasn’t tweaked what her stand is.

So far, though, I’ve been impressed at how substantive the discussions I’ve heard have been. (That’s comparatively substantive.) “Mud-slinging” I tend to think of not as criticizing your opponents but criticizing them for trivial and unfair reasons. I think it’s appropriate to hold our candidates responsible for their legislative affairs, but if, say, Obama started making snide remarks about Clinton’s marriage — that would be mud-slinging.

Thud’s last blog post..If you are new here?