No wonder they lost

Joe Lieberman and John McCain appeared on Fox News Sunday claiming that voters are already turned off by the negative tone of the campaign so far and will fail to vote as a result. They called for greater unity and civility by both sides.

Yeah, that'll happen.

We hear this in every campaign, but how can anybody expect Bush to take all the attacks on him both personal ("too dumb to be president") and policy. Kerry's flip-flopping on issues is hardly an irrelevant issue, any more than Bush's Iraq policy is. How is showing an unedited clip of Kerry saying, "I voted for the $87 billion, before I voted against it," unfair? I'm sure that a lot of Democrats think it's unfair that Bush is able to raise more hard money, just as Republicans are enraged by George Soros' promise to spend a large part of his fortune to defeat Bush.

Criticism of one's political opponent is at the heart of the First Amendment. This whining is just another form of it. In a country where some of our greatest leaders have been called apes, fornicators, etc. what makes us think that negativity is unamerican?

Update: Tim Blair has a great rejoinder to the "quit picking on Kerry" non-story: KERRY SURVIVES KNIFE-WIELDING SARIN GAS VAMPIRE BUSH ATTACK. He also summarizes the challenger's week, "Keystone Kerry." I like that.