Campaign 2012 - What Did We Learn?

Daniel Patrick Moynihan: "Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts."

Media pundit Ed Shultz asked what this year's presidential election says about the American electorate, when money has so much influence over voters? 

In fact, media money in the elections has paid for trumped up facts.  

Two major issues where truth is secondary to facts are:

(a) JEEP negative ad- the corporate executives and media have declared it to be a lie. Nonetheless, the Mitt Romney campaign insists on supporting the scare Ohio ad where voters are lied to about JEEP jobs being moved to China.  This ad was created with money - decadent amounts of it poured into messaging that may or may not stick - this particular ad was a boomerang.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57544748/obama-goes-after-romneys-jeep-ad-in-ohio/

(b) Benghazi, Libya - Republican muckraking a tragedy:  Republicans created a political brouhaha out of the killing of four Americans including our American ambassador Stevens, while we still don't know all the facts about the incident.  Moreover, the incident itself was redefined by Republicans who have made unsubstantiated claims about what happened when the American consulate was stormed by  people in chaos, who included terrorists determined to take advantage of an unstable situation.  

Regardless of who wins the Presidential election, Americans must come together about how elections are managed. Voters must insist on ethically funded elections and overturn the Supreme Court Citizens United ruling, allowing for lies to be paid for based on corporate rights to "freedom of speech" .  

Voters should not be "bought" with decadent amounts of advertising money.  

In buying elections, the voters become as movable as tokens in an election map Monopoly game.  At some point, there comes a time when somebody must "go to jail" for election fraud.

Campaign 2012 teaches us that democracy is a gift we must continue to support with due diligence - let's move Forward!