Post by gretchenm on Nov 7, 2008 20:01:08 GMT -5
Dave Granlund, Massachusetts
11/7/08
McCain and Obama are slinging puddles of mud at eachother while at the podiums, and McCain is in the middle of throwing some in Obama's face. Perhaps on purpose, McCain's bucket appears empty, while mud can still be seen in Obama's. Lipstick on a pig, Muslim “Hussein” terrorist, hockey mom, Palin’s pregnant daughter, Bush equivalent, socialist, elitist, Rev. Wright. These were issues brought up in the campaign. The Republicans and Democrats attacked even though at times refrained, in the end it was a large and conflicting campaign. The campaigns logical fallacies include argument ad hominem (attacking a person’s views by attacking his or her character), oversimplification, and false analogy.
On news.aol.com/elections/2008, there was a map showing the electoral and popular votes of each state. The popular votes were close, usually less than a 20 percent difference. Indiana, worth 11 electoral votes, only had a one percent win by Obama. Obama won the Presidency because he won California and Florida, but notably he won “Republican” states and counties as well as Independents. This suggests negative campaigning hurt more than helped the party that used it most, and as the cartoonist suggests by a negative connotation with “From Two who promised to clean up Washington” Americans did not buy into negative campaigning Major issues in this election such as economic recession could be the reason negative campaigning was ineffective.
Negative campaigning will hopefully be extinct by next elections. The pointing fingers is not what America wants to hear. Not while thousands of people have foreclosed homes and hundreds have lost jobs. The method should not work, but some might believe in such foolishness and deceit.
