I continue to be dismayed at the political advertisements that are being run by the Bush campaign. It seems that each week brings a new, glitzy ad attacking John Kerry’s credibility. record, patriotism, judgment, etc.

Is Mr. Bush’s own record so abysmal that he feels the need to make every spot negative? Is this the only way he feels that he can win voters?

Perhaps the president wants the people to be distracted from the increasingly evident fact that he got us into a war that never had to be fought. Perhaps he wants to take attention away from a cowboy mindset that spawned the abuses at Abu Graib prison. Maybe he wants us to overlook our diminishing credibility in the world community and rapidly escalating hostility even in the moderate Islamic countries.

It could be that he is just unable to find enough positives in his own record to convince us to vote for him.

For myself, I find it hard to respect any person who has to constantly attack someone else in order to make himself look good or justify questionable choices.

I hope that voters here in Maine will think long and hard about the ethics of the people running for office and how they get their messages across. I hope that for us, integrity is more important than sound bites.

Carolyn Bloom, Auburn