Political ads are meant for presidential candidates to promote their own campaign. However, this year it seems like the candidates are attacking each other’s ideas instead of promoting their own.
It seems like all of the ads that I’ve seen on TV and online are of either Barack Obama trying to sabotage Mitt Romney, or vice versa. This attempt on both their parts to make their adversary look bad is almost childish–it makes both of them look bad.
According to CNN, Romney attacked Obama in a recent ad. “Everyday that we fail to act, that [spending] fire gets closer to the homes and children we love, and rather than putting out that spending fire President Obama has been feeding it,” says Romney in a recent campaign video.
Another one of Romney’s campaign ads said, “More women are unemployed under President Obama. More than 5.5 million women can’t find work.”
Why is Romney attacking President Obama instead of stating how he will improve these existing issues? Rather than saying how we spend too much or how women’s unemployment is up, he should be telling us how he plans on fixing these things.
On the flipside, CBS News says that one of Obama’s recent ads opened with a former Missouri steelworker, Joe Soptic, saying, “When Mitt Romney and Bain closed the plant, I lost my healthcare. [When my wife got sick] there was nothing they could do for her, and she passed away in 22 days.”
While the Soptic’s story was tragic, the ad led to the assumption that Soptic’s wife died of cancer because Romney’s company, Bain Capital, shut down his plant. The ad did not mention that Soptic’s wife died 5 years after he lost his job, and she had her own insurance for a part of those 5 years.
Obama should not be bringing Romney’s personal life and business into the election. I don’t see how Soptic’s situation correlates to Romney. It’s not like Romney set out for this to happen to Soptic and his family; the whole situation was exaggerated.
Politicians seem to be going after each other more and more, when they should really be trying to promote themselves. This banter back and forth is a bad reflection on the character of presidential candidates from both parties.
