I'm not American, but like most Canadians I've been following the U.S. election because the two nations are pretty closely integrated (as the old saying goes, "when America sneezes Canada catches a cold"). As the campaign has gone on I've been just completely appalled by the negative tone it's taken. I'll readily admit that I'm a fan of Obama's (a previous subject of inspiration here) and both sides are guilty of "going negative" to be sure. It's just that the degree to which the Republicans seem increasingly desperate and willing to distort the truth or even outright lie is amazing.
One of the oldest political tricks in the book when you can't run on your record and you can't offer better ideas is to just smear the other side. John McCain in particular should know better than this - he lost to Bush in 2000 because of lies created by the same Rovian strategists that are now running his campaign in 2008. We're not immune here in Canada either; we go to the polls tomorrow to (hopefully) throw out our own batch of out-of-ideas right wing fear mongers.
I don't see this as a Republican vs. Democrat or Liberal vs. Conservative issue; it's a right vs. wrong issue. We deserve better. I think Conservatives in both Canada and the U.S. have a lot of good ideas, but unfortunately at this particular moment in history they are being advocated by the wrong tactics and the wrong people (folks like McCain, Palin and Stephen Harper).
I think that in politics if you can't be civil you should just sit down, shut up and let some grown ups try running things. That would be change I think we could all believe in.
