Smearsville

That's what they are doing on TV this election.  Countless smear ads, accusing candidates of doing unlikely things, voting for awful things, voting against good things.  Mostly Democratic, although not all. 
   Strangely enough, the smears are kinda wishy washy.  Never a specific, never a real name or date, not even a bill number that one could look up.  I can see how they might speak to true believers, but anyone of ordinary sense will be suspicious of such vague and outrageous accusations. 
   Not sure if I understand the strategy behind such ads.  It is a truism that 40% of the voters are yellow dog Democrats, and 40% are rock ribbed Republicans.  These voters will vote their party, no matter what.  The 20% independents control the election and they are the voters your advertising needs to reach.   These smear ads may delight the yellow dog Democrats, but I don't think they will speak to independents. 
   And, there is a heluva lot of money flowing into this here mid term election.  Yesterday the mail brought me 5 by 7 four color postcard for Rebecca Brown (Democrat running for NH state rep from my district).  That kind of mailing is pricey, few rep candidates have the money.  She didn't have that kinda money two years ago.  Wonder where the cash came from. 

Newsies cannot count

NHPR was giving yesterday's election results this morning.  They reported on NH, VA, NYC, CO, WA elctions.  Not once did they give a vote count.  Win by a landslide, win by a hair, it's all the same to NHPR.  Or, their staff has difficulty with numbers too large to count on their fingers. 
   Then, to distract us from the Obamacare meltdown, they offered a couple of blue meat stories.  You know, you throw out red meat to excite conservatives, and blue meat to excite liberals. First was a hassle in upstate New York over opening town meeting with a prayer.  Really important story there. 
   Then they had an election finance story.  Some activist was urging the IRS to be even more difficult about granting tax exempt status to 501(c) yadda-yadda organizations lest they use the money for politicking.  Real people are all ready outraged about IRS harassment of conservative organizations, and this idiot wants more of the same.