by Charles Sumpter

Created on: October 23, 2008

Negative advertising for so long has poisoned our electoral process and it has no place in our system. After this year's election, it should be perfectly clear why negative advertising should take a backseat in elections to come. In order to advance a true and solid platform to change America, our political system must bring to light the serious affects of negative advertising:

Negative advertising takes voters attention from serious issues. It has become a useful tool for weak politicians to deflect attention away from them to something else. Due to McCain's lack of substance on the economy, he decides to talk about Obama's lack of experience, never really exposing his ideas on how to fix the economy. And guess what, the American public along with the media goes just along with this.

This type of advertising spurred mostly by lies might start becoming reality and fact to voters. It creates a situation that makes it difficult to discern what's true from what's not.

It is character damaging. Why is it that people insist on calling Barack Obama a Muslim when in fact he is a Christian? The McCain camp has allowed this to go on for some time before finally challenging and setting the record straight.

Aggressive negative campaigning may bring to light a candidate's own failing campaign and may only serve as a means to deflect attention.

If one is to criticize another candidate, then it should be on the issues and true merits reflective of the candidate. This campaign, with the addition of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has been nothing but lies, lies and more lies. Connections to Bill Ayers that have been blown out of proportion have no place in this election. In a recent CNN article it showed that too much negative campaigning can backfire on a candidate. The article mentioned that, "Whenever the campaign takes a negative turn, independent voters notice, and they'll punish the candidate that takes it too far," John Avlon, author of "Independent Nation: How Centrists Can Change American Politics," told CNN prior to the debate. Information like this certainly cannot and should not be ignored.

Grave misuse of the ability to point out opponents shortcomings has become the norm. This also draws on the McCain campaigns attempts at linking Obama to terrorism. This simply has to stop, no one benefits from this type of behavior and our country suffers along with the electoral process.

Together, the American people must stand up and say that they will not take this anymore. The media has a huge role in this and change will not come unless the media addresses this serious issue. I think after the election, much more will come to light and we might be able to better witness the direction of our country.

There is a time and place for everything, but right now is the time to do what's best for the American people.

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