response to "Topics" blogs about mudslinging

In his blog on October 29, Aaron blogging under the title of Topics About Texas, brings up very good points about the elections on state and local levels and how the advertising and mail outs have gotten ridiculous. The author's main point is that the candidates and voters have been disrespected on some level. Now, I do agree that the mudslinging tactics are antiquated and are sometimes hurtful to the oppositions' character, but there doesn't seem to be away to deter most campaigns from doing so.  The other aspect is that it often works. The best example is the Willie Horton ad by the Bush campaign in 1988. His advisers were able to paint Michael Dukakis as a do-nothing liberal who was soft on crime.  Now while we didn't have anything that dramatic manifest itself this year, it is evident that attack ads are here to stay, and it's up to us as the informed electorate to sniff out the bs.