"Making nice does nothing to get any gop candidate ahead. Make it mean, make em scream and then trash em again when they respond."
Actually, I disagree. Look at the Wellstone fiasco of 2002. Americans were horrified by that shameful display and the democrats lost big time. And again in 2004, when Michael Moore and Moveon.org went into their hateful diatribes equating Bush with Hitler, again the voters were repulsed. Bush didn't need to respond in kind. He stayed above the fray. People could clearly see who the bad guys were and who the good guy was. Remember when Tom Daschle had to run away from any link to Michael Moore. He was accused of hugging Moore at the screening of his crockumentary and he tried to distance himself. But the damage was done and he lost.
Think what you like. Playing nice and above the fray accomplishes nothing. The average american voter pays more attention to who's ahead on American Idol than to national and international affairs.
Not responding just leaves the dems latest lies firmly implanted in the average voter's otherwise empty head.
Hit them in kind, call them liars and show why they are liars, be nasty and the gop will get more respect by standing up to them as well as showing the crats that their "repeat the lies often" tactics will no longer work.
That includes not bowing to political correctness or giving up free speech rights because you are afraid you might offend some lowlife member of the rat party.