Speaking of political television advertising, I recommend the article “The Reinvention of Political Morality” by Thomas Edsall on today’s New York Times blog “Campaign Stops.”

Edsall, one of the most experienced political journalists in America who is now a journalism professor at Columbia University in New York, focuses on the Mitt Romney TV commercial recently where he falsely and misleadingly uses a quotation from President Obama by neglecting to point out that Obama was quoting his Republican opponent John McCain.

Romney’s ad is “the first irrefutable violation of ethical standards in the 2012 campaign,” writes Edsall. While outlining how political television ads have evolved over the years, for the worse, he adds that “what was once considered sleazy becomes the norm.”