Slander and more slander in the election

It's rare when a candidate is making a stump for themselves and they never compare or mention his or her opponent. Every soundbite I hear has some comments about the other candidate. I cringe when I hear them. Or even better, bash the President. The Democrats seemed to fare well with that strategy in the mid-term elections. Not to say the Republicans haven't used the same rhetoric before, but Bill Clinton came out pretty unscathed.
If you can create certain perceptions about a candidate close enough to an election you may lead the public to uncritically assume these are reality. Most of the time its a half truth painted nicely.
Right now a prevalent strategy is portraying someone guilty by association. Dems do it by associating Republicans as being in bed with George Bush. Enough people perceived this to be true last election and swept in lots of Democrats into office. It probably was a bit uncritical because there were no doubt some Dems who voted or agreed with Bush policy, the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the economy and certainly Republicans do differ with the President. Now the Republicans are firing back with allegations of Obama's associations with some questionable people.
Quite a civilized campaign, huh?