[justshutupandtakeit]

You realize, I hope, that the founders DID NOT campaign nor run ads attacking their opponents. Maybe we should return to their standards of holding elections rather than assault the airwaves with fraudulent claims and lies. I can barely stand to watch tv during the election season because of them. Most of the fraudulent lies are from RATS so this might help.

[CasearianDaoist]

Of couse they did.

[spunkets]

"You realize, I hope, that the founders DID NOT campaign nor run ads attacking their opponents."

Nonsense. US politics is full of personal characterizations and has been so from the beginning. Notwithstanding this fact is that the political ads banned have no relationship to smear campaigns. The law is intended to keep the sheep ignorant.

[vbmoneyspender]

You realize, I hope, that the founders DID NOT campaign nor run ads attacking their opponents. Maybe we should return to their standards of holding elections rather than assault the airwaves with fraudulent claims and lies.

What is your source for your contention that people such as Jefferson, Adams and Madison didn't run hard hitting campaigns to become president. As far as the standards of certain of the founders are concerned, I recall that John Adams had a Congressman imprisoned under the Aliens and Sedition Act for daring to criticize Adams while he was President. Is that the type of standard you want to go back to?

[goodnesswins]

No....the founders did a lot of behind the back bribing, arm twisting, cajoling, etc to get OTHERS to bad mouth the opponent with their 18th century versions of "media".....Read the JOHN ADAMS Biography

[IGOTMINE]

"You realize, I hope, that the founders DID NOT campaign nor run ads attacking their opponents. Maybe we should return to their standards of holding elections rather than assault the airwaves with fraudulent claims and lies. I can barely stand to watch tv during the election season because of them. Most of the fraudulent lies are from RATS so this might help."

Perhaps the most ignorant statement I've seen on FR. You really, really need to read the editorials and articles regarding politicians and elections during the "good old days".

[steve-b]

You realize, I hope, that the founders DID NOT campaign nor run ads attacking their opponents. Maybe we should return to their standards of holding elections rather than assault the airwaves with fraudulent claims and lies.

This is one of the most ignorant statements I've ever seen on FR, and that's saying something.

Political operatives in the time of the Founders routinely lobbed stink bombs that no modern candidate would touch with a ten-foot pole. To cite one example that is well-known two centuries later, where do you think the Jefferson-Hemmings story came from?

[NYC Republican]

I can barely stand to watch tv during the election season because of them. Most of the fraudulent lies are from RATS so this might help.

That's exactly what I was thinking... Left to stand on their own, the Dems positions on nearly every major issue falls flat... Without the massive bombardment of propoganda just before the elections, not to mention the dirt and "gotcha" effect a day or couple of days before the election, this may actually really benefit the GOP greatly. Remember, the Dems rely much more heavily on soft money than the GOP as well, so another plus.

[jaugust]

Your argument sounds more emotional than intellectual...I don't doubt that there are many who "feel" the way that you do who are incapable of turning the switch to the "OFF" position when a political ad is on.

[AdamSelene235]

You realize, I hope, that the founders DID NOT campaign nor run ads attacking their opponents.

Pshhaaww. Ok, not ads. Rather they hired scandal mongers to spread vicious rumors about their opponents in the press. Jefferson's smears of Adams spring to mind. Hell, even George Washington was accused of conspiring to sell America out to the British.

You, of course, know these things to be true.

[Zack Nguyen]

You realize, I hope, that the founders DID NOT campaign nor run ads attacking their opponents.

Are you kidding? If anything, campaigns were even more vicious in the early 19th century than they are today. The invective thrown back and forth between the party newspapers would make your jaw drop.

Congress has the right to regulate elections, but not free speech. That is what this bill is about.

[MineralMan]

"You realize, I hope, that the founders DID NOT campaign nor run ads attacking their opponents."

Silliness. Do some research. Campaigns in the early years were nasty as the dickens. You're making a statement that is palpably incorrect.