Mudslinging 101

It seems that the closer the political race is the worse the insults fly. One guy will say one thing which usually does not pertain at all to the issues and the other guy usually comes back with something even worse. Just like a bunch of kids, anything is fair game. Come-on people grow up!
I was listening to my favorite morning radio station WAMC( http://www.wamc.org ) on the way to work Thursday morning when I first heard about the altercation between GOP candidate for governor Carl Palodino and New York Post editor Fred Dicker. Palodino was addressing the Business Council at the Sagamore hotel in Bolton Landing, New York. After the meeting Dicker started questioning Palodino about the recent allegations that he had made against Democratic candidate for governor Andrew Cuomo in which Palodino said that he had proof that Cuomo had had an affair while still married to his former wife Kerry Kennedy (as of right now no proof has been provided and Palodino appears to be backing down on the claim).
Things got extremely heated when Palodino accused Dicker of working for Cuomo and of sending a photographer to the house of Palodino's young daughter to take pictures of the girl who Palodino fathered out of wed-lock in his own affair.  The two of them ended up having to be pulled apart and restrained! The comment that rings in my mind is of Palodino yelling "you keep away from my daughter or I'll take you out!". Is this really how we want our public officials acting? It's bad enough that a reporter can't keep his cool. Cuomo himself has been relatively quiet about the whole thing, saying that he would not "stoop to the gutter".
That something like this should happen is absolutely ridiculous. I couldn't believe what I was hearing! No, wait, I could believe it. I just don't know why it has to be like that. What ever happened to the politicians of old, a time when our leaders were real leaders in a truly bi-partisan way? We need to get back to that! Why does it have to be one political party versus the other?
I believe that aside from a few issues we all have the same core values, needs, and wants. We all want the best for our kids. We all want to be healthy and to be able to seek medical care when needed. We all get hungry, thirsty, sick, and tired. Somewhere there has to be a mutual consensus, a common ground that we can all reach together.
When people are unwilling to hear the other side or are unwilling to give a little, conversations will always die. There needs to be less of the "three guys in a room" and more of everybody included. What are the rest of us for if all of the decisions are made by a select few and the bills are voted on sometimes having never been read by the majority (and I don't mean the political majority)? Are they but pawns to be moved around by the party leaders as needed to accomplish a goal?