How scary is he?

Fear.

It's what political campaigns thrive on — that raw, unvarnished, inescapable terror we all feel when we've been surprised by information we can't process. The more complex the facts, the better for the fear factor. Those who play the fear card are banking on the tendency we all have to run and hide when we're afraid.

But there are a few of us who are the Dorothys in the Wizard of Oz story. She pulled back the curtain. And there he was, the Wizard — not so scary after all.

The Los Angeles Times, much like its East Coast rival (NYT), has made it clear that it supports the democratic candidate. And the coverage shows it — from headlines to ledes to choices of who to quote to photos. Read it carefully and you'll see there's a methodical attention to showing how stupid (and dangerous) the Republicans are, and how virtuous and downtrodden the Democrats are.

Both sides of this debate are using fear as a tool, though.

I just hope that voters will do their due diligence between now and November and figure out the difference between scary fluff and reality.