Quick quiz
To which presidential candidate does this phrase best apply? "rich elitist ... who says he's a man of the people."
a) George W. Bush
b) John F. Kerry
If you said George Bush, you haven't been reading your right-wing agitprop. Which is good--continue to pay those folks no attention. If I include the three words missing from their ad ("liberal from Massachusetts"), it's obvious they mean Kerry, but I think it's obvious they're projecting their own vulnerabilities onto their opponent.
Both sides are saying this will be the dirtiest election in a long time. The attack ads from ostensibly nonpartisan groups are coming already, but so far little of the mud seems to be sticking.
One reason might be that Americans are so oversaturated with the lies, misrepresentations, selective use of evidence, cronyism, vengefulness, war profiteering and general contempt for the truth and fair play coming out of the White House these days that we've become inured to the effects of attack ads.
Strained inoculation metaphor
Call it what you want--dirt, character assassination, opposition research, mud--the folks who want to continue occupying (def. 4) the White House will drudge up whatever they can find--and make up the rest--to smear Sen. Kerry and his wife. But it may not work this time.
By exposing us for so long to the kind of inflammatory material we normally face only in election years, the Bushies may have unwittingly inoculated the citizenry against the arsenal of germ warfare they'll unleash as the battle nears its end.
Perhaps I'm just being optimistic, but the sense I have is that people have put up with so much b.s. already that nothing shocks them anymore. I think the Bush team has done us a favor.
12:05:25 PM 
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