Participant > You don’t think it a tad childish
Given the crudeness of today’s politics, no. I think recent politics shows that playing nice and appealing to philosophical ideas is ont enough to win elections. Romney was a perfectly decent candidate -gov & business experience, grasp of international matters, moderate, moral. Had all kind of crazy and dirty stuff told about him. He himself understood the problem – with almost a majority of the country being recipients of government largesse, hard to win elections. So, you need passion and emotions, and references to other side weaknesses to win.