America’s politicians must think we’re a nation of small-minded people who can only be swayed by a negative swarm of innuendo and misleading facts.

That’s the only justification for the barrage of attack ads and negative political messages being thrown around today.

Among the absolute worst mediums for this is television.

For months presidential hopefuls John McCain and Barack Obama have bashed each other’s records in stump speeches, at the debates and on TV ads.

Even here in the “Hospitality State,” things quickly get inhospitable when politics are on the table.

Currently, it’s darned near impossible to turn on the television for more than a few minutes without stumbling upon a Roger Wicker vs. Ronnie Musgrove ad bashing fest.

Both candidates for the vacated U.S. Senate seat long filled by Trent Lott have turned to nasty negativity in efforts to separate themselves from their opponents.

In the race for the White House, all candidates combined raised more than $1 billion. That’s a staggering amount, especially when large sums of this cash are spent on ads to tear down rather than build up.

Something’s wrong with our campaign financing when campaigns spend hundreds of times the position’s annual salary to woo voters, especially by using schoolyard antics in an effort to one-up their opponents.

How are voters ever to understand which candidate is the lesser threat when handfuls of mud are slinging overhead constantly.

Our nation seriously needs to consider further restrictions on campaign finance, before the ugly election-time cycle keeps getting worse.