Negative opinion of negative ads

Sometimes negative ads persuade me to vote differently from intended. The ads against Arnold Schwarzenegger show him as a positive and effective leader. The ads against Jerry Brown just tell me what I already knew about him, and say nothing about his opponent.

Sue Hutchison writes in the Si Valley paper:

In the spirit of much sought-after but increasingly elusive common ground in the abortion debate, I'll begin this column by acknowledging a point of consensus regarding Proposition 85, the initiative that would require parental notification when a girl under 18 seeks an abortion.

Parents on both sides agree that if their daughter were going to undergo any medical procedure, they would want to know about it. They would want to make sure she was protected, not terrified and alone. That's why, at first glance, parental-notification laws seem eminently reasonable. ...

Proponents of Proposition 85 say, ``If your child were going to have an appendectomy or tonsillectomy, you would want to be informed.'' Well, yes, of course. ...

The comforting news is that research has shown that three of five girls under 18 do tell their parents if they want to have an abortion. ...

And there's another thing that a lot of parents don't want to consider. ... Susan Luce, a lawyer in Los Altos, realized this only recently when she was talking with her kids who were home from college. They told her that the response they dreaded most from her when they were growing up was ``The Look.'' They would go to great lengths to avoid being on the receiving end of that glower of disappointment. ... That's why there are many concerned parents of teenagers who don't support Proposition 85.

So 60% of pregnant teenaged underage girls seeking abortions tell their parents, and 40% don't because they are afraid that their parents will give them a disapproving look. So the law says that they don't have to be subjected to "The Look". Weird. I'll vote for Prop. 85. Those 40% of the parents need to know what is happening to their kids.

Yes, I do think that it is a little strange that the Leftist media pundits think that an 18-year Congressional page can't handle some lewd emails, but a 14-year-old girl with her parents is mature enough to secretly get an abortion without having to tell them.