Jeff's Commentary - 8/31 - Attack Ads

It begins again. Less than one week after the primary, the first of which will be many political “attack ads” began airing Monday night. Governor Brewer ran an attack ad against Terry Goddard that shredded all qualification Mr. Goddard might have to be Governor. Watching the ad, you would think the current Attorney General was the most incompetent person ever running for office. I’m sure Mr. Goddard will respond with some clever ad back on the Governor’s lack of skill to run the state.

We were hit with hundreds of attack ads from Sheriff Joe Arpaio who wasn’t even running for office in this year’s primary. The ad spent about twenty of the thirty seconds ripping apart current Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley. I don’t get why a guy running supposedly for Sheriff in two years does an attack ad on a guy running for Maricopa County Attorney this year? The strategy worked as Mr. Romley was defeated by a relative unknown Bill Montgomery. Bill may be a good candidate but I know nothing of his background. Too bad for us as Mr. Romley is one of the most competent politicians out there who works for the “right agenda” vs. the Sheriff’s agenda.

Then there was Ben Quayle. His new claim to fame is his statement that “The President is the worst President in the history of America.” Really!? From a kid who has done relatively nothing in his life but write a few blogs on "The Dirty Scottsdale" website, that’s quite a statement. Ben may be a nice guy and smart but we wouldn’t know it from his commercial strategy. I have no clue what makes him worthy to represent me other than his attack on Obama. But again, it worked as he secured the nomination to be the GOP candidate for the Third Congressional District this fall defeating nine other candidates.

Research shows that 80% of candidates who use attack ads win. That’s why the candidates resort to it so much. Can you imagine if you were going into a job interview and talked about why the other guy should not get the job and nothing about your own qualifications? I don’t think most companies would hire you. Yet that’s what happens in politics. Ben Quayle has no real background to be in Congress other than a famous name. He has a skillful media consultant who knows it works to keep others on defense and talk as little as possible about your own qualifications to govern. We don’t know who Ben really is or what he stands for. That’s okay because it happens all the time. Just would be nice to know more about Ben than his statement that the President is awful.

The public continues to buy into these attack ads and send people to represent us and then we wonder why nothing positive gets done in Washington. Until people start demanding more and understanding what the issues are, we are going to continue to get what we got.

That’s what attack ads are all about. Some facts and some fiction. Rarely about the candidate themselves who are paying for the ad. Too bad. As the rock group The Who sang a classic song “Won’t be Fooled Again”, unfortunately we will this voting season because too many of us believe what we see.

Jeff