TCS Daily – I Know You Are But What Am I?
My latest for TCS Daily, “I Know You Are But What Am I?,” is up. It takes a look at the game of tit-for-tat character assassination being employed between George Allen and Jim Webb in their campaign for the Senate. The close:
Instead of trying to tear the other man down, why not try instead to campaign on doing what’s right for Virginia and the United States of America? Given their honest and legitimate disagreement on a whole range of issues, not least of which is the ongoing war in Iraq, that shouldn’t be too difficult.
It would, however, be novel in today’s climate.
Oh sure. Try to undermine the foundation of our modern election system. Communist.
As much as people claim to dislike negative campaigning, it has been proven repeatedly to work. In RI, the Chafee campaign resisited going negative but until the RNC convinced the campaign to do so, Chafee and his challenger were neck and neck. Chafee went negative and the gap widened enough for a convincing Chafee win. It was discussed on (I think) Hardball just after the election.
Tim’s right — there’s a place for negative campaigning, because without it all you’ll ever know about either candidate is what he says about himself.
There’s a reason why people are dependent on the opinions of others for their reputations.