Parallel universe

Republican Delegate Timothy Hugo is an obvious sleaze. To answer questions about his negative ads, he says, "A lot of Democrats have said that Rex Simmons runs an appalling, negative campaign."

The truth is that ever more thinly sourced negative ads will continue to work as long as voters listen to them. Most of them are filled with nonsense, but our Alzheimer's political memory doesn't exact any cost from their purveyors.

In the parallel universe I'd like to jump to, people turn their bullshit detectors way up.

The story, on the other hand, quotes many sources about standards in political advertising!

"In political advertising, you always have to have a source, and that source has to be credible," said Sean T. O'Brien, executive director of the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership.

Really? This made my BS detector ring hard enough to give me a headache. There are NO standards, got it?

"To me, it is like quoting graffiti off the underside of an underpass and using it in a political ad," [ Karen S. Johnson-Cartee] said.

Bingo. The problem is that all political advertising, particularly the invidious stuff from Republicans, is likely to be bullshit that might as well come off a bathroom wall. That's the right message to push on the public, not some namby-pamby blogs-are-the-problem nonsense.