Response to Post #6

Krystal Ball is a Virginia Democrat that may have different political views than I have; however I do not see any reason why she should not be elected to office because of some photos taken six years ago at a private party. I do not agree that there is a double standard between men and women who run for office and the private affairs that get brought to light. There have been plenty of cases where electoral candidate’s pictures have been used against them. Read NDP candidate in B.C. election quits over racy photos in Facebook. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/bcvotes2009/story/2009/04/20/bc-election-lam-facebook.html. This article describes a male candidate that withdrew for the election because of photos that surface from his Facebook pages.

The public elects the candidates not the media. How the candidate chooses to handle these type of situations will ultimately determine their outcome. I believe if she would have handled the situation differently than it may have helped her numbers instead of possibly hurting them. If she would have simply stated that these are pictures of her from a private party held six years ago and she is embarrassed that they have been released; however it will have no effect on her ability to make sound political decisions then I believe the situation would have died out. I think instead she was advised to take it down a different route so she would gain more public exposure. The more the public sees you the higher the chances you are to be elected.

In years past many of the elected candidates have been those that were able to raise the most money and therefore able to publicize their campaign the most. This year is slightly different in that people are tired of the past candidates and are really tired of the current political officials. I hope that people will begin to elect candidates because of the values they hold and their commitment to uphold the constitution. The media can have an adverse effect on the outcome of a candidates running and for this reason I believe they should stick to presenting the facts rather than their opinions about the facts.