Politics: Where we struggle to kneel in the muck.

[bilmore]

Originally posted by taxwonk
What's sleazy about pointing out that your own running mate has a significant philosophical disagreement with a part of your campaign?

Yeah, it can be defended on a surface level.

But you know better.

So did these NYT focusees:

October 14, 2004
THE VOTERS
After the Final Debate, Some Voters Are Still Sitting on the Fence
By JODI WILGOREN

EST BRANCH, Iowa, Oct. 13 - Forget his health care plan. Forget abortion and embryonic stem cell research. Forget even how many times he did or did not vote to raise taxes. Senator John Kerry may have lost three critical votes with a simple aside, when he invoked Vice President Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter as part of an answer on same-sex marriage.

"That is very unfair," blurted Patsey Farrell, 64, one of a handful of undecided voters gathered here to watch the final presidential debate Wednesday night. "I'm sorry, that's too personal. That's too hurtful."

Her son-in-law, Kevin Uhde, the 50-year-old elementary school principal who held this pizza party, agreed. "Not by name," he said, shaking his head at Mr. Kerry on the 24-inch Phillips television set a few yards away. "Why single out one person?"

And Mr. Uhde's wife, Karlen, added, "I think it's like a low blow."

More