I wish politicians didn't argue their case by complaining about the opposition.

For a long time I've been peeved at politicians who run their campaign by focusing on how you shouldn't vote for the other guy. Recently my local council had an election and I had to choose between two parties to vote for. I had promotional material for both parties to help me decide which to vote for.

One lot of the material was very constructive. It was promoting to re-elect the councilors who were in council previously and discussed things they had done to help the area, it explicitly addressed issues that hadn't worked out well, but showed what they had attempted to do to lesson the blow to us local residents, and it spoke constructively on what they as leaders would bring to this local council.

The next lot of material was promoting a new team of councilors who had plenty of experience it seemed. This material however was very different. 80% of the material was bagging out or trashing the opposition.

Now it's no hint of which one I voted for, but unfortunately the ones that did all the complaining got in. I am always dumb founded by how that tactic of self promotion works, by talking so much about your opposition and not yourself. This morning a news post over on the Least I Could Do RSS feed talked about this in the context of the US Presidential elections, and I totally agree with what the author has to say.

"I don’t want to hear why your opponent should not be president. I don’t want to hear how past associations makes the other guy dangerous.

I want to hear why you should be prime minister. I want to know how you’ll address the economy. I want to know how you’ll make the world a little bit safer for our children. I want to see your track record in keeping your word. I want to know what change entails. I want to know who you’ll bring with you to run our nation. I want to see your plans for getting us off our oil dependence and moving towards clean energy. I want to know what you’ll do, why you should lead. I want you to speak clearly, concisely and intelligently. I want you to speak to the smartest of us, not the most ignorant."
-- sohmer (ref: Least I Could Do News - Not So Great Debates)