Ads Push for Discussion of Substantive Issues During Election Campaign

By: E&P Staff The Institute for America's Future (IAF), in an effort to get candidates and the media to discuss more substantive issues during the election campaign, started a series of op-ed ads in The New York Times today.

IAF Communications Director Toby Chaudhuri said in a statement: "Lipstick on pigs, Cindy's drug use, Michelle's senior thesis, earmark bluster -- the presidential campaign is descending, once more, to a road to nowhere. We cannot let that happen."

The ad series -- scheduled to run for seven weeks -- will focus on issues such as the economic difficulties faced by millions of Americans, soaring global debt, financial crises, the inadequate U.S. health care system, America's collapsing public infrastructure, global warming, corporate corruption, and the Iraq War.

Today's ad notes, among other things, that "a typical worker works a whole year to earn what her CEO takes home in one day. A hedge-fund billionaire pays a lower tax rate than his secretary.... Over the last seven years profits and productivity soared. But workers didn?t see the benefits."