They do last too long. But you can't legally stop them under our system of government. Politicians have been trying to quell dissent and make people quit criticizing them since the Sedition Act of 1799. You've got some people in Congress today who want that want to make it against the law for them to get criticized by negative ads and all that. Appealing as that might be to the politicians who get criticized, the folks who do the criticizing have every right under our system of government.
Political speech is the most fundamental speech in our form of government.
However, maybe Senator McCain will go over there are talk good sense. And it's never a mistake to talk good sense to any group, especially one that needs some good sense talked to them. About Bill Plante Bill Plante is a three-time Emmy Award winner who joined the CBS News Washington Bureau in 1976. He has been covering national elections since 1968. In 1984, he was part of a CBS News team that captured an Emmy for coverage of Ronald Reagan's 1984 re-election campaign.