I don’t know about you, but I am so relieved that by the time this article makes it to print, the awful mudslinging campaign ads that have been taking over my television for months will finally be over. I was so disappointed in the lack of information that we, as voters, were given in these overbearing ads. Whatever happened to the kissing babies and shaking hands days? It seemed that no matter what type of office candidates were running for, their only goal was to make the other candidate look awful. I even caught a couple of the televised debates, and instead of talking about issues at hand, most of the time candidates were defending themselves from whatever “lie” had been told in the opponent’s television ad.
I know that these ads are said to be extremely “effective” for the parties, but I still find it completely ridiculous. If all of this negative effort and money were put towards informing the public on issues and explaining ideas for Ohio’s future, I think that everyone would have a fair chance to make an educated vote on Election Day.
Let’s be honest; many people are not going to get off their butts and look up the actual campaign information. Instead they’re likely to ignore key issues and hold on to nasty opinions of “crooked politicians.”
Not to mention, most of these “opinions” are not true. That was what bothered me the most about these slandering ads. The truth was stretched so far!
Ohio’s campaign race made news around the country because our politicians got so dirty. The Boston Globe made mention of ads by Mike DeWine, Sherrod Brown, and Republican attacks on John Cranley. Times and dates in the ads were conveniently left out, old altercations which are mostly irrelevant to the election came up, and as always there were tons of name calling.
As an Ohioan, I know I can’t be alone in my opinions, but unfortunately the politicians don’t seem to care.
As I mentioned before, statistics show that the negative ad campaign is a very effective one, so I don’t see a change any time soon. Oh well, at least for now, we can all watch our television in peace again.