managers and advisors want the candidates to differentiate themselves from the other candidates by 1. putting the opponent in a negative light (personal, professional, religious, ethnic, voting record, etc.,) and 2. extolling their own virtues as the superior person and candidate and thus best choice for the voter. We here on the DU have been caught up in the campaign managers and advisors game. The MSM has been eating all of this up and fomenting strong emotional responses among us to advance their own agendas. I want to hear the candidates plans for dealing with the War in Iraq and Afghanistan, the "War on Terror", care for our Veterans and restructuring the dept. of Homeland Security, health care and medicare part D (a sham), social security, jobs and the economy, the path to citizenship for the 12 million illegal workers we depend on, the idiotic "no child left behind" education program, monitoring the oil industry and developing alternative fuels, global warming, updating our bridges and infrastructure and levies, etc., etc., etc. Dammit, so much that needs to be addressed and all we hear from our candidates are negative attacks to put each other in a negative light. And the MSM making race and gender the main issues while deverting attention from the real concerns of our beloved country. Enough already. I'll vote for the candidate strong enough to addresses the issues while attempts are being made to divert their attention to the absurd.