Dirty Politics - United States

Background. While dirty politics and mud-slinging is nothing new to American politics, this political season holds a special place in contemporary political history. Both sides admit that the stakes are too high for partisan politics while an economic meltdown, two wars, a healthcare crisis, and powerful rivals rising in China, Russia, and Iran threaten the supremacy of the American state. However despite these major issues, the presidential campaigns of John McCain and Barack Obama have shifted focus from these issues to personal contacts and poor decisions made two decades ago. How can we move past this roadblock while still bring all of the facts to light in an impartial manner?

The Dirt. Sarah Palin is under investigation for firing the Alaska Public Safety Commissioner for personal reasons while using a Yahoo! account for official government business. Barack Obama went to a church with an ardently incendiary pastor and served on the Woods Fund for Chicago with William Ayers, a suspected (yet never convicted) domestic terrorist. John McCain was one of the Keating Five and admitted to corruption charges while Joe Biden plagerized a speech in his 1988 presidential run. These are simply facts. Our presidential and vice-presidential candidates are human and have made mistakes. Is it really relevant that Joe Biden and John McCain made bad mistakes in '88 and '89? Probably not, and if it is, it shouldn't be more relevant than the real issues like the economy and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. If Sarah Palin is indicted or prosecuted for firing the Alaska Public Safety Commissioner, it should not be the Obama campaign's responsibility to notify the people (which they have not, as of yet, lamented over); the media will take care of that.

Obama's position is the most difficult of all. He never technically, personally did anything illegal or immoral. However the people with whom he has surrounded himself does raise serious questions about his morality. Can we trust a man who has associated himself with a former "domestic terrorist" and someone who has said "Goddamn America?" Clearly this is the point the McCain campaign would like to make. What we need to remember is that Obama has already addressed the Rev. Wright issue and that Obama was barely in first grade when William Ayers was active in the Weather Underground and has never expressed any sympathy for Ayers' former causes or his actions.

The solution. Clearly the only solution is to make this campaign about the issues. Both political parties have already vetted these candidates to the point of absurdity during the primaries. John McCain battled back from bankrupcy last November to the nomination while Barack Obama went from being the most junior senator in the senate to unseating the political powerhouse, Hillary Clinton to be the Democratic nominee. John McCain and Barack Obama need to stick to the issues and let the people make the judgement calls. Elections need to be about policy, however as we all know, they are all too often about perceptions.