It was the PUBLIC's failure to comprehend the most BASIC fact of political campaigns. A campaign ad is an AD. If some ad is selling the latest vacuum cleaner by Brand A and dissing the competitor's product, who just says "oh okay, I'll go buy Brand A right now, because I know that everything they stated in their ad is true and not taken out of context at all!!" No one. Except of course the exceedingly stupid, or someone who is in a serious hurry to buy a vacuum cleaner and really doesn't want to be bothered to actually figure out which is better.
After the first swiftboat ad appeared - which excerpted, out of context, Kerry's SFRC testimony, as "attacking the troops", I needed just a few minutes to find Kerry's SFRC testimony online, read it, and understand the true context of his words, and realize what total b.s. the message of the ad was. Likewise, most of the relevant stuff that was raised by other ads was easily available online throughout the campaign. (And you had a well-respected historian in Douglas Brinkley who had already documented it all.) But I bet if you asked 100 voters you would not find 2 who even thought to look for the real information.
THAT's the problem. Well, what do we do about it, I don't know. Just keep getting the full information out there, or point up how ridiculous the attack is, or divert attention to all the things that are effed up in GOP ideas. But when the public just doesn't give a shit about facts, or doesn't even realize that a political campaign is a MARKETING campaign, then the best marketer is going to win. Not necessarily the best person for the presidency.
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