Every four years, or every time that an election is in the works, political campaign writers show off their questionable skills by “Slinging Mud” at each other. This is without question the lowest form of “Creative Writing."
But take heart this form of election ad-writing is nothing new. It is as old as the American way of electing a leader, and it is much better. I would rather them throw verbal mud at each other, than bullets. So, what is “political mud” anyway?
Political mud is making “much ado about nothing,” a Shakespearian play of clichés, and "he said she said" used by the characters to make each other fall in and out of love with one another.
"Noting," is old English for rumors and eavesdropping, and taking statements out of context, so nothing in the place of "noting" is a play on words. Clichés, the one-liners used in political mud-slinging do much the same thing; make the voter fall in and out of love with candidates. By November we have heard too much of the catch phrases that by now have become over used, or clichés. So where does that endless supply of “noting” come from? The dreaded "sound bite." These gems of out of context words can and are cut and spliced to make the person in the public eye look and sound like a genus or not so much of one. So whose side are they on? The other side would have you believe, not yours.
I personally turn off the phones; turn off the TV, and fill the trash can full of political junk mail. So how do I gage the candidates? Simple; I watch to see how many planks in their political platform get swapped out for new ones during their campaigns. So if I do not like the end product, the final political platform. I will not buy it, and neither should you.
So how does, “John Q. Public” choose the leader of the nation? In my opinion appearances are everything: looking presidential, sounding presidential and acting presidential unfortunately. What most forget is that presidential veneer needs “political muscle” too. Without it you might as well elect Mickey Mouse to office. No one is slinging mud at Mickey.
So, in the end of it all we seem to elect the least muddy of the candidate; the candidate who maintains a presidential veneer and survives, somewhat untouched by the bloodless war of words. The lesser of two evils I think; the one that has that magical Mickey Mouse presidential appeal. You can blame the political mud mixers for the mud in your eye, or is it something more akin to biological waste.
So what must be remembered is that ideally what you hear and see is first carefully reviewed on paper and crafted to elect their candidate to office. The unseen warriors in this war of words are the political writers.