If it's in the News, it's in our Polls. Public opinion polling since 2003.

POLITICAL COMMENTARY

Cindy McCain--Playing Nice

A Commentary By Susan Estrich

"We'd rather not win than to have to do that," Cindy McCain told Ann Curry of the "Today" show, in response to a question about negative campaigning. "That's not worth winning for. This is about being a leader and a person that can be a good example for our children, and a good role model. There's many, many, many more things to this job than just being the president. You are an example. You have to -- you have to be better than that. You have to be."

Cindy McCain is, by all reports, a very nice woman, who has dealt with her share of issues -- a stroke in her 40s, addiction to prescription painkillers, not to mention the trials and tribulations of raising four children, including two sons who are now in the military and an adopted daughter from Bangladesh. She has endured rumors and speculation (on the front page of a recent edition of The New York Times) about her husband having an extramarital affair with a blonde lobbyist, and even, during the vicious 2000 campaign, his having fathered an illegitimate child. She is rich and files her taxes separately, which has led many people to challenge her right to keep those returns private. Her husband was married to someone else when they met. Yada, yada. If anyone knows how ugly it can get out there, it is Mrs. McCain.

She is also a USC graduate, a fellow Trojan (that's where I teach), which earns her even more points in my book.

So I believe her when she says she doesn't want this to be a negative campaign. I believe she believes it's not worth winning if that's the way you have to do it.

I just don't believe that is the way her husband's friends and supporters will see it.

There is an ugly tradition that has developed in politics in recent years, aided and abetted by the rules and exceptions that govern the financing of campaigns.

The candidate stays clean. Other people do the dirty work. Then the candidate is "shocked, shocked" to discover there is gambling in Casablanca, and that it is beyond his control.

And the media play right along, letting him get away with it, repeating the ugly ads, reporting that they were financed by someone else, parroting his expression of shock and concern amid the knowing winks from so-called wrongdoers who can't be stopped because they are, as they must be under the law, "independent" of the campaign.

The only way to stop negative -- and what I really mean is dirty -- campaigns is for the candidates to say they will take personal responsibility for what is said by those who support them, for the advertisements run on their behalf, for those who work for them, as well as those who conveniently claim their independence.

And it is up to the media to enforce that standard of responsibility by making clear in advance that they will view the so-called independent "527" groups as the arms of the campaigns that they really are and expect the candidates to exercise the control that they could if they wanted to.

Is Cindy McCain going to "swift boat" her husband's Democratic opponent? Is she going to have anything to do with dirty ads, appeals to base instincts, slinging mud knowing that some of it always sticks? Absolutely not. This is a woman who didn't want her husband ever to run for president after what they went through in 2000. She knows this stuff hurts. She knows it can be ugly and vicious and full of lies. She won't do it. Problem is, she doesn't have to. That's what friends are for.

COPYRIGHT 2008 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.

Views expressed in this column are those of the author, not those of Rasmussen Reports.

See Other Commentary by Susan Estrich

See Other Political Commentary

Rasmussen Reports is a media company specializing in the collection, publication and distribution of public opinion information.

We conduct public opinion polls on a variety of topics to inform our audience on events in the news and other topics of interest. To ensure editorial control and independence, we pay for the polls ourselves and generate revenue through the sale of subscriptions, sponsorships, and advertising. Nightly polling on politics, business and lifestyle topics provides the content to update the Rasmussen Reports web site many times each day. If it's in the news, it's in our polls. Additionally, the data drives a daily update newsletter and various media outlets across the country.

Some information, including the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll and commentaries are available for free to the general public. Subscriptions are available for $4.95 a month or 34.95 a year that provide subscribers with exclusive access to more than 20 stories per week on upcoming elections, consumer confidence, and issues that affect us all. For those who are really into the numbers, Platinum Members can review demographic crosstabs and a full history of our data.

To learn more about our methodology, click here.