The 2012 race for the White House - Ready, set, go! - Let the mudslinging begin!

In any modern day presidential race, there is always the mudslinging.  Sooner or later it always begins.  But in the past, the mudslinging usually has been between the candidates, with the news agencies reporting the activity.  But get this headline that I just ran across: 

NY Times and Washington Post enlist readers to sift through Palin emails, as ‘Palinistas’ are asked to ‘go undercover’

I mean, am I wrong, or does this look like the news agencies are getting into the mudslinging?  And they are doing it against a candidate who isn't even a candidate!  Palin hasn't even declared herself as running for president.  I believe that she has said she has thought about it.  But she hasn't officially declared she is running for president the last I heard.  And these two papers aren't the only ones who are on a 'smear Palin' campaign.  On Piers Morgan's CNN  show,  he and Ann Coulter got into a dump on Palin session at Piers urging. 

Ann Coulter On Sarah Palin Running For President: ‘I Wouldn’t If I Were Her’

And they didn't stop there.  Morgan even compared the tea party to Mussolini and Hitler followers from back before World War 2.

Piers Morgan Asks Ann Coulter if Tea Party is Modern Version of Hitler and Mussolini's Followers

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE DAY WHEN NEWS AGENCIES JUST REPORTED THE NEWS INSTEAD OF TRYING TO MAKE IT???  Another example for you:  take CNN's presidential debate in New Hampshire on June 13th - one of the candidates for president, former governor of New Mexico Gary Johnson, has been excluded from the debate. 

Presidential candidate Gary Johnson on CNN’s silence: ‘Really disheartening’

These people aren't just reporting the news anymore.  They are making the news.  They are trying to sway and determine who gets elected and who doesn't.  They are trying to make up people's minds for them. 

This is truly a sad day in American politics, that the process of electing a president has gotten so nasty.  I share the thought that I heard another commentator - LZ Granderson - make on a news show.  He made the point that a lot of the candidates are criticizing Obama, but they aren't laying out a plan that will be better than what Obama has done.  Now that is the essence of it, now isn't it.  While they are all busy slinging mud at each other, they aren't having to spend time talking about the issues at hand:  the problems that our country has and how they are going to solve them. 

So maybe we the American people, need to demand that our candidates for government office - on any level - discuss the issues instead of engaging in mudslinging.  And maybe we the American people should demand that our news agencies report the news instead of trying to make and influence it. 

-- that's all -- jd --