Agreeing to sling different mud

So a pro-Romney Super PAC planned to focus on Jeremiah Wright--you know, because those decontextualized clips of a black pastor sounding angry didn't get played on the news enough last time around--but quickly changed its tune based on Romney's unenthusiastic response. Then a pro-Obama Super PAC clarified that it won't be going after Mormonism, and David Axelrod agreed.

I'm certainly glad to be spared a barrage of prime-time crap about how black liberationists hate America (and even say "damn" about it!) on the one hand and about polygamy and special underwear on the other. But note this news story's assumptions: that a) a campaign is all about attacking each other with one blunt instrument of a subject or another and b) the high road includes taking religion off the table. Each of these is a real shame.

Going dirty in a presidential election is nothing new, but the rise of Super PACs means we're in for more mud than ever. It'll be an election fought in large part by attack ads created by cash-rich organizations with just-plausible distance from the candidates. So if we don't hear a lot of distortions and half-truths about Trinity UCC and the LDS church, we'll just hear that many more of them about other stuff. So much better!