Memo to Obama, Clinton and McCain: Shut Up (Again!) About Each Other Already

The political idiocy just never stops.

In the seemingly neverending--and endlessly stupid--game of campaign "Gotcha!", now we have Sen. Clinton accusing Sen. Obama of looking down his nose at weary middle-class voters. We have Sen. Obama responding by criticizing Sen. Clinton for voting for a bankruptcy bill backed by credit card companies. And we have Sen. McCain's campaign accusing Sen. Obama of being "elitist" and "condescending" and "out of touch" in his views.

Can someone kindly explain how any of this (and its accompanying mini-firestorm in the weekend news media) has helped any voter anywhere learn anything new and useful about any of the candidates and where they stand on any issue?

"Gotcha!" politics is utterly useless, except that it gives the news media a convenient excuse for avoiding more substantial reporting. And it is totally insulting to voters who want to give fair consideration to all candidates.

Indeed, the whole campaign process now is broken and needs to be scrapped and replaced with a long series of public and televised forums where the candidates have to explain themselves and their hopes and proposals for America--without any mention or implied criticism of other candidates in the race.

American voters are smart enough to pick their leaders without the "help" of campaigns that try constantly to undermine their opponents or make them look stupid.

It's the campaigns and their candidates--every one of them--that end up looking absurd.

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