POLITICS; WHAT A GAME.

If politics is a game, then it is a real dirty game indeed; for all you have to do, for the most part, is to engineer a whole amount of mud and sling it into your opponent's camp; and the purpose of that is to do as much damage as possible to his or her image.

If you cannot participate in the mud slinging strategy, then stay out; because the more mud you catapult over the wall, the more recognition you tend to get from those that are supposed to be fair and honest in making sure that a contest is equally balanced for its players.

Do what you can to smear more dirt on any one attempting to challenge your position, and gaining ground in a fight is what you must aspire for, and that is what matters most in the arena. What people are watching or waiting to see is who is being pulverized, and who is getting hurt.

No; there is no fairness anywhere; and the only characters you dare to trust are the paid help that is loading the mechanism to inflict disdain on others.

This may look like an old story, but it is happening now for those who are canvassing the voter for prominence, in light of the forth coming general election, so that he or she will become the choice of his or her party, and wing himself or herself to the top of the heap.

The 2012 general election campaign has already started; and the speeches by candidates, and even potential ones, are becoming more scathing than ever. That will be the trend from now on, until November of this year, when a choice will be made for one party's candidate to win the election or re-election, as the case may be.

It may be that President Barack Obama has no visible challenger in his own party, but the other party is working on it to bring commotion in his territory. Names are being bandied around in the media; and although, he himself has not made any personal attacks, he has received truckloads of criticism from all sides; and especially, from his opponents.

That is where the mud slinging always starts; from the other side, depending on where you yourself want to stand on the issues.

Whether you are a liberal, a Conservative or an independent, you must choose at least one issue that will interest you, to be able to make a final decision. There must be a preference between the two factions, or you will not be performing your civic duty as a citizen.

Now, there are those persons, who have made themselves into king makers, and they are the pundits, pollsters, analysts and news contributors, who are purported to be neutral, due to the journalistic obligations of some of them. They have to be that way, because a journalist has to be objective; and that must go for the rest of them as well, but are they?

On the one hand, they are pitting the two front runners of the Republican Party, Romney and Perry, against each other, and managing to get Paul and Bachmann to be rowdy in their statements; while on the other hand, they are pushing Obama in front of voters and showing his failures.

Also, they will make comments, such as, this person is a veteran, and the other one is not, and therefore he is not fit to be Commander-in-Chief. Or that person has been a businessman all his life, and so, he is the one who can create jobs; but the others a all politicians. Or one has migraine headaches and he or she is very forgetful, and so that will affect his or her performance as president. One is even dumb, they tell their viewers and listeners; and so on and on it goes.

In a sense, they are providing material for the mud slinging in both parties to intensify; and if that continues, the campaign will be so fierce and unimaginable that, whoever wins the election will regret it.

All the candidates have their individual plans that will place them in good stead; or so they think; however, if the tirade and mud slinging will not cease, then this campaign season will not fare well for anyone. It will really be dirty; after all said and done.

Speeches "marked by intemperate, vituperative, or harshly censorious language" are becoming too common.

So far, Obama has not indulged in any of that, or has he started any kind of smear tactics of his own. Yet, everybody seems to be doing it, so why not he? Will he therefore emulate the others in the coming days ahead?.