"Obnoxious"

An editorial in today's Anchorage Daily News caught my eye, and I had to add a post on it. The thesis of the column is that Ted Stevens and Don Young have apparently survived (though that might not be the case for Uncle Ted tonight) in great part because of "obnoxious" ads and campaign tactics by the national Democratic Party.

This year seemed to be more obnoxious than most because someone apparently gave a bunch of idiots at the national Democratic Senatorial Committee, or whoever the heck they were, free rein to spend untold amounts of money on telling us how corrupt Ted Stevens and Don Young are. I can only assume that this being the first year the Democrats actually had money in eons, they went a bit overboard in spending it with no adult supervision. Because if even one adult had been paying attention, they would have perhaps gleaned the backlash building in Alaska over those ads.

...But they could do that because these outside organizations were pouring smut into our state and onto our airwaves. Believe it or not, most Alaskans knew that Ted Stevens was convicted, Don Young was under investigation and Africa is a continent. We are not idiots.

To the author, Elise Patkotak: Given that your state's support for a freshly-convicted federal felon, and perhaps a future one to boot, I am not sure most people would agree with you.

Call it "nasty politics," or "over-the-top negative campaigning," or "obnoxious ads." Fine. But there's a lot more to be said for re-electing Stevens and Young.