Obama, Romney Pull Negative Ads

President Obama called for “prayer and reflection for the victims” of the Colorado shooting Friday, cutting short a campaign swing through Florida as he pledged federal support for state and local officials. “There are going to be other days for politics,” Obama told a crowd of several hundred supporters on hand to see him at the Harborside Event Center here. Obama said he had spoken earlier in the morning with the mayor of Aurora, Colo., the Denver suburb in which the shooting had taken place and with the state’s governor, John Hickenlooper , and that the federal government would assist in any way possible with local law enforcement efforts. … Before the event, campaign press secretary Jen Psaki said that the Obama campaign had asked television stations in Colorado to pull “contrast” ads critical of Republican Mitt Romney off the air for the time being. Romney campaign press secretary Andrea Saul announced shortly afterward that the GOP campaign would do the same. SuperPacs supporting the two candidates said they also had pulled their advertisements in the state/L.A. Times. More here. (AP photo: President Barack Obama walks down the steps after speaking about the Aurora, Colo., shooting at an event at the Harborside Event Center in Ft. Myers, Fla., Friday)

Question: Does angry political discourse affect the public?