The five types of attacks ruling this presidential season

We expect attacks and opportunistic criticism between presidential candidates whether they are of opposing parties or running in a primary battle within the same party. That is especially true this year, when Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment about Republicans not attacking each other was thrown out the window right from the start of the early primary season. But now presidential candidates have to also deal with social media attacks. Sometimes the social media attacks come from competing candidates and their supporters. But even worse, they often come from unknown sources that may or may not have any facts to back up their attacks. These kinds of attacks can be extremely time-consuming for a candidate and their staffs, especially when media attention turns the attack into a frenzy.

Attack tactics in this presidential race, so far, fall into five main categories:

• Half- truths
• Out of context
• Insinuations
• Personal attacks
• Complete lies

When Carly Fiorina was accused of destroying jobs as CEO of Hewlett Packard, the attackers did not complete the story of how eventually many more jobs were created under her tenure after some corporate restructuring. But critics like to just stop at half truths. When Ben Carson was attacked for saying he would not advocate a Muslim as president, he was attacked by many people who said he wanted to apply a religious test to candidates, when such a test is not in our Constitution. Attackers, including Republican primary candidate Lindsay Graham, took Carson's comment out of context. Carson never said he wanted to apply a religious test, or that he wanted to change the Constitution.

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It was Carson's opinion! It happened to coincide with that of millions of voters! The attacks backfired, because Carson continued to climb in the presidential polls, and contributions to his campaign continued to increase. Donald Trump was attacked and criticized for stirring up the illegal immigration debate when he said he wanted to deport all illegals. Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton made the insinuation that Trump wanted to round them up, pull them out of their homes, put them on buses and send them back to where they came from. Donald Trump never said that. Hillary was trying to score some political brownie points and get some positive media attention. It didn't work, because the negative attention she’s getting is so overwhelming even some liberal and Democrat-leaning news commentators can't deny the truth. But Mr. Trump has led in the personal attacks category. Carly's face, Ben's faith, Jeb's energy, and Marco's sweating. Mr. Trump, those kind of attacks might have been ignored at first as the presidential race unfolded. But now they are turning people off. Complete lies are the most destructive type of attack, because too many people in the media will report them and ask questions later, if at all. By that time it’s often too late because the damage has been done, and the court of public opinion doesn't know what to believe. Supporters lose their enthusiasm, and contributions start to slow down. The reality is that you need money to run a successful presidential campaign. The best example of complete lies occurred when I ran for president four years ago. It's a painful recollection, but I hope people learn to not jump to conclusions, and try to discover the truth. The media did not bother to find out the truth about the false accusations against me four years ago, but you can read the truth if you’re interested in knowing it. If the media had not gotten into a frenzy and had done a little more homework, things might have turned out differently. I share this painful recollection because I want you to question all attacks before you believe them. You should especially question those attacks on a candidate where the media appears to be trying to create a frenzy to drive someone out of the presidential race. The United States of America needs a president who is a real leader – not just someone who can survive a series of attacks of half-truths, out of context claims, insinuations, personal insults or complete lies. Attack tactics don't always work, and sometimes they are not true. Don't jump to conclusions. Finding the truth takes a little more work.