Kooky Campaign Commercials

All last week I was thinking, what if someone from another planet came here and all he knew about our elections was what he learned from campaign commercials?

Well, first, the alien would conclude that only the dregs of our society run for office. The liars, the thieves, the adulterers, even the occasional murderer, as I learned from one ad. I even saw an ad that accused a candidate of favoring public urination.

The alien would also think that voter participation doesn't have much to do with voting but a lot to do with phoning candidates, as in call so-and-so and tell him to stop lying or cheating or selling dope or whatever. How many times did we hear that one this year?

And by the way, if you don't travel much, you will interested to know those ads on your hometown station are like McDonald's: Go to the next town and they are just the same. The same accusations, the same grainy photos, the same raspy, off-camera voice. Only the name of the person being attacked has been changed.

Campaign ads have been dumbed down now to the level of professional wrestling, the difference being that wrestling is occasionally funny.

Are the ads effective? I can't imagine anyone taking them seriously, but the candidates must think they work; they keep paying for them.

I guess we should also remember that wrestling does get high ratings on TV, and some people even believe it's on the up and up.

Well, here's the shame of it. Some won and some lost, but there was some fine people running this year. Too bad we couldn't tell it from their commercials.