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Editorial Cartoon

John Harp                                 Ed De La Garza 
Jason Caesar Consolacion     Jim Parsons

The power of negative thinking

"Remember New Hampshire!" That's what presidential candidate John McCain's supporters might be shouting this week as paid advertisements pop up all over Michigan TV broadcasts. Maybe a better slogan would be, "The Republicans are coming! The Republicans are coming!"

The Republican presidential primary has been anything but a clean fight so far, and if Americans want to expose themselves to graphic, tasteless behavior, they could just rent videos of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Strong campaigning is important when the nation's future leader is being chosen. On the other hand, we want a president who reacts civilly to criticism and competition. George W. Bush does not. Neither does McCain.

To wit, Bush's win at the South Carolina polls. Negative commercials and phone calls razed the Palmetto State, leaving citizens' ears burning even though they don't have anything to be ashamed of.

It's true, McCain dropped his attack ads in the last week of the campaign, and he now claims to want to win on his own positive merits. But a live debate basically turned into "You're more like Bill Clinton!" "No, you are!" Maybe maturity decided to stay in New Hampshire with McCain's victory.

Now McCain wants to call for a "full investigation" into Bush's failure to meet an agreement involving notifiying voters of merged polling areas. Scandal, where is thy sting?

Not that we're advising you to vote Democrat just yet. Come March, we may see some fights just as brutal as the South Carolina fracas both inside the Democratic Party and between parties.

Candidate Al Gore (our veep, if you weren't sure) has already started lambasting both of the Republicans for acting like reformer poseurs. He says real reformers would have demanded the Confederate flag come down in South Carolina. At least he probably won't compare anyone to Clinton.

And the other Democratic major candidate, Bill Bradley, frequently speaks to the media only to call out Gore for being wishy-washy or misleading when it comes to health care and abortion

So if the bickering becomes too much for you to handle, just turn off the TV or radio and do something else. It's like Mom always said: "He's only doing it to try to get attention. Just ignore him. He'll get bored and leave you alone."