So what happens is, the other side snatches some four or five second soundbite that someone with a cell phone or video camera has captured. They never give you the four or five paragraphs before the bite, or, the four or five paragraphs after the bite. They just give you the completely out of context bite.

Another thing I like (not) is when the other side grabs some office-holder's voting record. They take a "no" vote that took place early on in the legislative process, when a bill was in its formative and likely inferior stage, and they use that early vote to claim the opponent is against some common sense matter. They neglect to tell you that when a far superior measure came up later, the opponent voted for that.

How about when they tell you, "such-and-such's Richmond buddies" support this. Or, "so-and-so's pals in Washington" oppose that? First of all, who are these buddies and pals? And what difference does it make? Who cares?

Here's another good one. They'll put out a commercial that says, "The Virginian-Pilot calls Candidate X's plan 'ridiculous.'" Or, "The Daily Press says Candidate Y is 'out of line.'" When the truth is, the quotes were lifted from the individual papers' letters-to-the-editor section, and were written by some partisan hack and not by the publication's news or editorial writers.

When I moderated a candidate's debate at ODU a few weeks ago, ten of the 24 candidates in Hampton Roads' contested races bothered to show up. When I challegend those ten to stop bashing the other guys in their commericals and their literature and simply tell me why I should vote for you... only two actually took me up on my challenge. The rest muttered something about having to respond when they have been slandered or otherwise misportrayed.

Larry Sabato, the noted UVa political scientist says that politicians engage in negative campaigning, rightly or wrongly, because it works. I don't know that it does. I see the dismal voter turnout figures every year and wonder if maybe it has the exact opposite effect.

If there's one good piece of news, it's that it'll all be over, one way or another, next Tuesday. And we can get back to the car ads!