It is due to our pampered nature (after generations of being handed everything) that it is the candidate's responsibility to "define" himself to the voters, though John Kerry has been a U.S. Senator for 20 years! Should we not know a thing or two about this man? Did he volunteer and serve heroically in Vietnam? Has he voted as a moderate-to-liberal centrist during his time in the Senate?

Isn't there some responsilbilty on the voter's shoulders to read the newspaper and understand the issues? In this information age it has become the politician, and not the citizen, doing the informing. We the citizens should use this limitless information (and speed of information) to ensure our elected representatives are doing their jobs. We should not allow campaigns to "define" themselves and the issues with multi-million dollar ad buys (with ads that blur reality) in the only states that count - the battleground states.

It surely doesn't help Kerry's cause when the sitting Vice President of the United States uses an official visit and speech at a university to claim that Kerry would be reckless fighting terrorism. (And gets carried live by all the cable news networks.)