In his Miami Herald column, Channel 10's Michael Putney nails the obscene nature of Charlie Crist's ad campaign:
----------------------------------------------- "The principal reason for my cynicism is the avalanche of fiendishly clever and monstrously misleading political ads we've been subjected to. They poisoned the well of the body politic and the mood of the electorate. They also skewed the results of several races. If Charlie Crist is the winner in the governor's race -- I'm writing this on Election Day -- then you can chalk it up to the multimillion-dollar ad blitz that all but blotted out the
sun.
The ads certainly offset Crist's mediocre-to-poor showing in the NBC debate last week where he was rattled by Chris Matthews' rapid-fire questions and off-the-wall remarks. ...
Crist went into the debate leading Davis by about six or seven points and, rather than losing ground, ended the week 10 points ahead in The Miami Herald's Zogby poll. Chalk it up to his ads, which were effective no matter what respondents to that poll said, which was that they made no difference. They did. What they and all the others also did, of course, was rend the fabric of voters' trust.
As a friend of mine, who runs a renowned ad agency that refuses to do political ads, told me last weekend, ''These political ads are incredibly mean, and I can only conclude that the ad guys who make them are mean and simply don't care about truth.'' Bingo. ----------------------------------------------- The question: Why did Putney wait until after the election to call out one of the nastiest campaigns in Florida history?