News Herald from Port Clinton, Ohio • Page A5

NEWS HERALD II 5A OPINION THE FIRST AMENDMENT shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of EDITORIAL OARD SCOTT BILGER Community Member OHN LEWIS III Community Member WE WELCOME OUR OPINIONS POLICY: We welcome your letters the editor of 300 words or less. Guest columns must contain fewer than 500 words. Limit ne letter to the ditor per month. Submissions must include the au- name, address and phone number for ver- i fication. ISCLAIMER: The News Herald re- erves the right to decline any submission, and to edit copy for grammatical errors and length.

Letters and guest columns ubmitted to the News-Messenger may be published distributed in print, electronic or other forms. MAIL UBMISSIONS Letters to the Editor ews Herald 1700 Cedar St. remont, OH 43420 ax: 419-734-3141 Email: pcnews- annett.com This presidential election is like no ther. Most election years around this time, I do a TV show on nasty political commercials. Pundits explain which a ds worked, which and who won because he raised more money and spent more on negative ads.

A mong Republicans this year, says Ad Age, Jeb campaign and supporters spent the most, $80 million, followed by Marco Rubio at $70 million. It seem to help. Democrats spent even more. Hillary campaign and backers spent $153 million and Bernie $76 million. onald Trump, of course, was the brunt of much that negative advertising.

Clinton, Sanders, Ted Cruz, John Kasich, Bush, the Club for Growth, Our Principles, New Day for America, Correct the Record and Keep the Promise super PACs ran commer- ials that I thought would devastate the Trump camp aign. ome replayed his crude comments: she have a good body? No! Does she have a fat ass? Some replayed flip-flops. After Trump comp lained about China our David Letterman asked Trump where his ties came from. admitted Trump. are your shirts asked Letterman.

We employ people in said Trump. And in a debate, he said, doing many, many eals outside of the United Political commercials showed that Trump once ushed for forms of Obamacare that most Republicans hate. In one ad, a reporter asked Trump about ealth care: Reporter: Universal health care? Trump: I am going to take care of everybody. eporter: Who pays for it? Trump: The government is going to pay for it. Other ads played a sound bite of Trump saying, probably identify more as a opponents spent millions to reveal Trump in his own words, caught contradicting himself on TV.

Pundits called the ads Most Republican primary voters care. Soon, the ads may get still nastier. Every election season pundits complain about When President Obama last ran, he said, can seem like a return to civility is not Four years before, reporters laimed have taken dirty to a whole new People say they long for a return to politeness in olitics but politics was never polite. Thomas supporters printed handbills that said: Adams is a blind, bald, crippled, oothless man who secretly wants to start a war with France. When he is not busy importing mistresses from Europe, trying to marry one of his sons to a daughter of King George Adams supporters came back with: Thomas Jefferson wins, murder, robbery, rape, adultery and i ncest will be openly taught and practiced.

Are you prepared to see your dwellings in flames? Female chastity violated? Children writhing on the One hundred sixty-eight years later, when Barry Goldwater ran against Lyndon Johnson, Johnson supporters claimed Goldwater was a schizophrenic. Amagazine called got a thousand psychiatrists to sign a statement that said Goldwater was insane. None of it was true, and Goldwater later won a defamation suit against Fact. But by then, the elect ion was over. Despite such deceit, probably better off with negative ads.

very year some candidates say, will run a positive This year Bernie Sanders ran ads showing him hugging people while cheering crowds surrounded him and singers sang come to look for Vanderbilt University political scientist John Geer found that three-quarters of negative political ads from 1960 to 2004 attacked real statements of olicy from the opposing candidate. Even if those statements turn out to be based on ies, those lies force the other side to reply with acts. Voters actually learn something. And usually, eventually, the truth comes out. ohn Stossel is host of on Fox News.

Nasty political ads can be informative JOHN STOSSEL GUEST COLUMNIST stuck in an airport-security line just not moving, seemingly a mile from the scanners, worrying whether make your flight and if you have any hope of getting on the next one. elax, here comes a mime to entertain you! No, ait, a es, adding insult to injury: Airports a cross the nation are hiring to calm the crowds left seething by Transportation Security Agency bungling. Musicians in Atlanta, miniature horses in Cincinnati, at scattered other hubs and, yes, clowns in San Diego. (You just know some air-rage case is going to assault one of those clowns.) Blame the TSA. It cut back on screeners this year in anticipation of the brilliant success of its PreCheck program which naturally worked just as well as every other bright TSA idea for the last two decades.

Cue record holdups at security checkpoints. The TSA is, of course, blaming you. who come to the TSA checkpoint unprepared for atrip can have a negative impact on the time it takes to complete the screening the agency sniffs. Worse, complains the TSA, is that more people are raveling as if that happen every summer. A lso, it notes, travelers insist on carry-ons, slowing verything down another huge surprise.

he solution? up to you, too: preparedness can have a significant impact on wait explains a TSA press release. Which is laughable: Some TSA preparedness would be even nicer. The TSA is asking for emergency funds to end the current crisis. But the Transportation Security Agency is a perpetual crisis and past time Congress looked to end it. New York Post, May 17 GUEST EDITORIAL LONG AIRPORT LINES: TSA BLAMES YOU TSA sites passenger preparedness as root cause, hiring to ease frustration who come to the TSA checkpoint have a negative impact on the time it takes to complete the screening TRANSPORTATION SECURITY AGENCY According to a May 11 United Press International news story, Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton promised a radio interviewer that, if lected, she would release government records related to Area 51.

Area 51, of course, is the remote ection of Edwards Air Force Base in the Nevada desert that many UFO enthusiasts believe is the site of alien ncounters. Iwas a little surprised that Hillary took an interest in this opic. Usually chasing little green bills instead of little green men. Usually the one saying, me to our leader so I can hit him up for a Clinton Foundation Urban legends and conspiracy theories insist that Area 51is a center for ongoing communications with aliens a place where crashed alien spaceships are taken apart so scientists can reverse engineer the technology and speed up technological rogress. I know reverse engineering an interstellar craft that smashed into a mountainside is like reverse engineer- i ng a Ford Edsel or New Coke.

As Donald Trump put it, like extraterrestrials who crash-land their flying saucers. Give me the aliens who accomplish their mission of decimating cities and atomizing toddlers. what I call a Skeptics point out that if we had really made contact with extraterres- rials, SOME low-level Area 51employ- ee would have played whistleblower by ow. Of course employees may be buy- i ng into the want the truth? You handle the philosophy. erhaps there is a fear that there would be mass panic if we knew we alone.

But this is 2016, after all. a long as they have gluten-based eapons, down with Many citizens wonder why, if Area 51has been around for more than 50 years, no president has spoken up to reveal its secrets. In fact, chief executives HAVE let information about Area 51slip out, but it is always quickly redacted. Surely you remember Pres. affe got a pen and got a phone.

And got a transdimensional death ray. Can I do that oing further back, President John F. Kennedy also almost let the cat out of the bag. Surely some of you remember he unedited version of his speech, choose to go to the not because easy, but because I think I left my ufflinks Some skeptics are quick to say, a minute Hillary is married to a former president. he have already told her any secrets of Area Skeptics are sure Bill would have divulged everything to Hillary because he has such a sterling record of telling her everything.

Most likely, the best she could glean would be his muttering in his sleep. I wanted was to get to econd base with her but those reaks even HAVE second Bernie Sanders has not indicated whether he believes in alien races; but i order to cover all demographic bases, he has recalibrated his campaign to focus on alien If Hillary does make it to the Oval Office and fulfill her promise, it could be a hollow victory. If she discovers that some bureaucrat accidentally destroyed the alien self-replicating pantsuit blueprints, she could view the red state map ruefully and ask, difference, at this point, does it anny Tyree welcomes email responses at and isits to his Facebook fan page His weekly column is distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons Inc. ewspaper syndicate. Would President Hillary Clinton spill Area 51secrets? TYRADES! DANNY TYREE If elected, promises to release gov.

records.