Iowahawk offers wry commentary on the political system, and some advice for candidates:
"So remember: the next time you learn that your opponent's staff is spreading stories about your candidate's involvement with a satanic LSD murder cult, take a deep breath, count to ten, and let it go. Sure, you could probably respond by distributing the well-documented evidence of your opponent's long history of serial necrophilia. Sure, it might temporarily feel good, and maybe it might swing a few million votes. But you have to ask yourself: to what end? Is some cushy 6-figure job in the next presidential administration -- with a probable $5 million-per-year K Street lobbying career waiting on the back end -- really worth losing your dignity and self respect over? Trust me, when your candidate's campaign is finally destroyed by some unanswered charges, and you're back waiting tables and filling out grad school applications, you'll at least have the deep personal satisfaction of knowing that you took the high road -- even when the game was on the line, even when the other team was playing dirty, and even when a well-timed "March surprise" would have easily made all the difference."
Good advice. Unfortunately, it will have little effect on the TrueBeliever(tm.) who believes that the FATE OF THE NATION is at stake, and that things have been going downhill for so long that we're all DOOMED, DOOOOOOOMED! unless their guy/gal wins. Which tends to lead to the ends-justify-the-means thinking behind most of the muckraking, when morality enters into the picture at all.
I usually recommend to folks who take this position that they take a week or so and drive across the country. Seeing exactly how vast the USA (or Canada) is and how much resources we have tends to put the doomsaying into perspective, at least for me it did. The nation will survive, and probably do pretty well, regardless of who's in office.
On the other hand of what IH is saying, a candidate who's just inept at countering amateurish attacks makes me wonder about how competent he'll actually be when he has to maneuver around both with the legislature and other nations. For example, Kerry's lousy response to the SwiftBoaters was a black mark not so much for the accusations, but because he fumbled the response so badly.