campaign ads, a waste of money

is it just me or are these million dollar ads that attack and somewhat try to make the opposition seem incompetant just a complete and ineffective way of running for office? all these claims about how much crack this politician or that politician smoked in college, or how they fooled around with whatshername or suchandsuch, being among some, are just getting old and useless.

what i see as an effective way for campaigning is to show some example for what you're gonna do for the people and for the state/country. if you bitc# about your oposition, then all you're gonna do when elected is complain about other country leaders, and say... i dunno... invade them on false claims/pretenses. why arent these people getting in to the scene or level of where the majority of people are, use the millions of ad campaign dollars (besides signs and badges that is) and help out homeless, unemployed, the education system, etc. theres just to much wastage, its like throwing a steak into a pack of wolves.

is this what the public likes to see, two sides battling it out on one of the lowest levels possible? i mean debating is fine, as they are mainly focussed on certain important issues proposed to the campaigners. but name calling? come on, its only later when we complain and say, "oops". these kinds of tactics should be the first signs in determining whether or not that person is the right one to vote for. but then again, no matter who you vote for these days, it seems that they end up just being one of the lesser evils if anything. dfh out

[edit on 1-10-2004 by deafence#]

I'd have to agree with you, personally I think these attack ads are childish and in the end undermine the political process. But sadly, I'd tend to say it is what the public wants to hear. It's a lot easier to not like a candidate for snorting coke than it is to like a candidate because of his educational fudning reform policy and it's repurcussions in the first fiscal year. I mean, most people don't even follow politics