Merepeka Raukawa-Tait: Scumbags 101

You need millions of dollars to become President of the United States. Or at least have the ability to garner millions for a successful election campaign.

So far fundraising by all presidential candidates in the November 2012 election, including Obama, has raised around $186 million.

This seems an obscene amount.

But it isn't only money in bucket loads that's necessary, it's an extremely thick, rhinoceros-like hide as well. In the race to become the Republican presidential candidate in this year's election, personal attacks are being heaped on candidates, by other candidates and their campaign teams.

This is particularly the case between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. Obviously a trusted strategy but it's no wonder a couple of candidates have dropped out.

There is only so much slagging off a person can take. Yet it seems there is never any shortage of candidates wanting to be president.

But having your entire life held up to public scrutiny must surely be the ultimate test. Yet American candidates, and the public alike, now accept that all areas of a candidate's life are open for dissection. If they become vilified in the process, tough. That's the price paid.

Following the election road show through the various states, I'm grateful that we haven't discovered, or is it perfected, similar tactics here in New Zealand. In the United States, apart from the thousands of supporters who get in behind a candidate, there are the cartels of well-paid campaign strategists whose sole job it is to discredit other candidates by smearing their name and questioning their credibility.

Past wives, lovers, workmates and disaffected family members are canvassed to expose "what every voter should know" about a presidential hopeful. What I want to know is where do you go to learn to become a political "douche bag".

Because that's what they are. Is there a course you take to study how to "get down and dirty"? What are the core competencies for this role?

Are these people actively recruited to work in this sordid area or does it only get sordid as the training progresses? It isn't normal behaviour to spend days, weeks and months thinking about causing the downfall and annihilation of your political opponents.

There must be some consolation though knowing that the guys on the other side are playing just as dirty as you are, or at least doing their very best. It's the content of the campaign's television advertising that I find particularly distasteful and unpleasant. A selection has been shown on our screens.

The candidates are depicted as suspect, underhand even, and not to be trusted. The advertisements show gloomy scenes of queues of unemployed people and whole suburbs of empty, abandoned housing. In the United States, they are repeatedly screened throughout the day.

The objective is to ensure that perception becomes viewer and voter reality. Whatever happened to honesty and winning by fair means?

Probably those who think like that wouldn't have got out of the starting blocks. I'm not so naive as to think that in New Zealand we don't have our political schemers working away in the background too.

Of course they're here. Maybe they're just as ruthless and conniving as those in the United States - "our man in at all costs". We should consider what these costs might be. I heard an eminent New Zealander remark the other day that he couldn't believe how distrustful we are of our politicians, those from central and local government alike. It seems we don't trust politicians and are unwilling to believe most of what they tell us.

But our politicians generally come from the same background as all other citizens. Some may be wealthier and better connected but we still view politicians as being representative of ourselves. Perhaps we should all look in the mirror.