Politics seem to really be about issues. YOUR best intrests in mind, politians battle each other for your vote to represent them. IF you really think about it it, politics aren't really about the issues. There about repesentation by an elected offical to take YOUR conserns to a voting body to do good for all. So in a sense, your not electing an issue, your electing someone to look out for you in the voting arena. they are out to prove they care about you. its your job not to elect someone who is issue based, but a good person. it is the job of the citizen to comunicate the issues to said rep. so if someone wants to get elected, it would only seem logical to elect the person showing you his credentials, not the person slandering his compititions.
thanks for listening.

And, by hearing what each candidate thinks about the issues and looking at, if possible, his track record as an elected official in the past. Most of us don't have time to go meet these people and spend enough quality time to see if they are indeed good people.
I agree the mudslinging is incredible, especially in my state (ALabama) this year. Because of the slinging of mud and other brown gooey substances, I have decided to not vote for either slinger of feces and instead write-in Jimmy Buffet.