Save It

The big story on the political radar today is the article in the New York Times regarding Senator John McCain's past relationship with a female lobbyist, and potential conflicts of interest that this may have caused. If you are interested, you can read the full article here. This post, however, is not to respond to or specifically discuss the issues in this article -- though I did find it enlightening as per Mr. McCain's past. But I would like to touch on the topic of dirty campaigning.

We all remember the 2004 presidential election, and the word that has since become a mainstay in political campaigns: "Swiftboating." As the Democratic presidential nominee, Senator John Kerry faced a lot of criticism from a group known as "Swiftboat Veterans for Truth." In short, the group publicly stated that John Kerry was not the American war hero that everyone claimed him to be, and that his acts of heroism were largely fabricated. This is otherwise known as dirty campaigning, even though it wasn't sanctioned by official political powers.

Many political pundits -- both last night and this morning -- have been discussing whether the New York Times' role in today's McCain story was purely journalistic, or if there was a more sinister intent of trying to derail Senator McCain's presidential campaign. I can't say one way or the other, but it has got me thinking of what I want to see throughout the rest of this campaign season.

Whether you like it or not, none of these candidates -- presidential or otherwise -- are "clean," and to believe otherwise is just plain naive. For whatever reasons, they have all been involved in situations that have left blemishes on their pasts, and could qualify as "scandals." So, can we all just stipulate that fact? These are our choices, for better or for worse, and while I do agree that looking at where a person has been can be beneficial, I think that there is no point in candidates bickering over who has been involved in a greater number of more serious scandals. "Vote for me, because my opponent has been implicated -- by anonymous sources -- in 3 more scandals than me!" Save it. I want to hear what you want to do for the country, not why your opponent is a scandalous figure, because you are just as scandalous. I honestly think that this is one of the reasons why members of my generation are getting involved in this campaign at record-breaking levels: we're tired of politicians working to destroy others in order to gain their own political advancement, instead of working for the betterment of the nation.