The media tell us everything we need to know and more about presidential campaigns. Endlessly, too. Front page stories, ’round the clock political analysis on cable, and the network news are full of everything about Senators Clinton, McCain and Obama every day, and thank the heavens its Pennsylvania Tuesday.

What do the campaigns tell us about ourselves, though, about the voters, the masses in America? Not much, I’m afraid to say. Perhaps there isn’t much to say about us, actually, and the candidates see that “not much” in us better than we do.

I’m not necessarily agreeing with the sentiment that the “masses are morons,” but in the same respect I’m not necessarily disagreeing with it, either. It is the nature of politics to employ the strategy embodied in the notion that no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the average person. Politicians are masters of the unfinished sentence, the wink above the spoken word, and never put anything in writing except at the very last minute when it’s too late to be refuted.

How many last minute mailings arrived in Pennsylvania voters’ homes yesterday? How many computer generated telephone calls were made last night to those voters? How outrageous or salacious were claims made in those mailings and phone calls? How many sentences went unfinished? And why yesterday and last night, if not because it would be too late to refute any crazy claims made on behalf of or against a candidate?

It’s shameful for campaigns to engage in these tactics in order to elect anyone to any office, dog catcher or president. Ever wonder why it happens? Because it works to one extent or another.

Candidates and pundits alike will deny that, will decry the practice, will attempt to rise above it and assert the average American can see through the cheap and tawdry behavior. Columns will be written bespeaking the wisdom and better-knowing of the average voter. Certainly, the masses are not morons, and they are getting a bad rap.

The fact of the matter is, though, that elections have been won and lost by the votes of dead people and dogs, electrical failures and hanging chads. In this age of “sound bites” it is not only possible, but most likely, that a candidate’s words will be taken out of context and used to hurt him or her by opponents down the road. Talk about games and gamesmanship, fundamental unfairness and the notion that it’s pretty easy to fool voters. In a close and closed race, with a smaller voting public and a less honorable campaign, very peculiar things can happen.

It would be interesting to know how long ago Hillary Clinton’s latest television ad was conceived. You know the one I’m talking about – - the Pearl Harbor, Franklin Roosevelt, gas lines, bin Laden commercial. We all know when it was first aired – - two days before the Pennsylvania primary. I’d be willing to bet a dollar that it’s been in the can for a while, just biding time, waiting for the moment when it would be too late to refute its implications, or at least meaningfully refute them.

Why? Because those tactics work, however small a bloc of votes are influenced. It doesn’t speak well of people purporting to be of sound and sufficient character to lead a nation. More importantly, it doesn’t speak well of us, the voters. Until we catch on and catch up, though, we can continue expecting the worst from campaigns. In fairness, we’re likely to get their best, too, but wouldn’t it be refreshing to avoid their worst?

We talk about demanding more from our public officials, our government leaders, our candidates. But until we demand more from ourselves, until we see through the worst campaigns have to offer and punish offenders by withholding our votes, we can count on the wink and the unfinished sentence.

We’ll continue to complain about the results, and the failings of those we put in office, when the truth is we have no one to blame for it but ourselves. Reminds me of the very old expression: “As the dog returns to its vomit, so the fool repeats his folly.”

I’m not optimistic, frankly, but I would love to be proved wrong.