Robosmear dangers
11:13PM Oct 18, 2008 in category 
by George Frink
Twelve years ago in a kinder, gentler era of presidential politics, the late J. Marse Grant argued with some eloquence that "America be spared the mean-spirited name calling between now and Nov. 5."
Grant, who died Friday at the age of 88, was editor emeritus of The Biblical Recorder, North Carolina's state Baptist newspaper. He seemed to be addressing himself primarily to other Southern Baptists, whose leadership he felt had lost its way by making the Southern Baptist Convention a political adjunct to the Republican Party.
Today the general issue of dangerously divisive overstatement is an inescapable national concern -- one well-addressed by Grant's comments.
Frink
