It's been a crazy campaign season, not just in California but across the nation, and negative advertising seems to be the reigning theme for most candidates.Of course, Meg's answer caused the crowd to suffer a bad case of the vapors.
Confronted with a pitch to "give Californians a break" by pulling negative television ads, Calif. Attorney General Jerry Brown was "all for it." His opponent, political newcomer Meg Whitman: not so much.
The proposal came up during an interview with Today Show host Matt Lauer, whose idea drew a wave of applause from an audience. Brown appeared a bit hesitant, saying that negative advertising is really in the eye of the beholder, but he eventually came around.
"Let's be clear, if she takes her negative ads down ... I'll take mine off, no question," he said. "We'll do it together."
Whitman balked at the idea, sending a wave of audible displeasure throughout the room. She said that Californians "need to understand" her allegations against Brown.
"I think it's important because I am new to politics," she explained. "People need to know where I stand and also, Jerry Brown has been in politics for 40 years and there's a long track record there and I want to make sure people really understand what's going on here. And I'm not doing it in a mean- spirited way. I just think it's important for people to really understand what the track record was in Oakland, what the track record was as governor."
Neither candidate answered this plea from Lauer correctly. They should have told him to grow some cajones and recognize that politics is a contact sport and the reason people run negative ads is because they're proven to be effective in shaping perceptions about candidates. Politics is not all about rainbows and unicorns despite what he might have been led to believe in 2008.
Lauer should have worn a dress.
Twitter user Blurt2u put it this way:
Matt Lauer is a perfect example of how the media thinks they are in charge of pretty much everything.
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