McCain's campaign has recently focused on linking Obama to former domestic terrorist William Ayers and the liberal organizing group ACORN. However, the voters are not buying it. The article contributes Obama's lead to the ineffectiveness of McCain ads.
But because the polls were conducted via phone, I have to wonder how much of an accurate reflection they are of reality. People who are especially passionate about the election this year and who firmly believe in a candidate are much more likely to respond. I doubt many polls that are conducted for this reason.
Overall this article shows us that negativity may not necessarily be the most optimal route to take in campaigning. It is interesting that Obama's negative ads were successful in persuading many that McCain is incapable of effectively dealing with the economic issues. Perhaps McCain's ads seem more baseless to voters, as opposed to the link Obama has created between McCain and President Bush.
I felt this article necessary to discuss given the previous post about negative campaign ads. I am curious to see how all of this 'mudslinging' will play out. Perhaps future campaigns will learn from this presidential election in terms of what is successful and what is not in persuading the electorate.
4 comments:
I agree that the attacks on Obama by McCain and vice versa has become a little outragous. It has been that aspect of politics that has turned me away from the field in the past. I feel like the American people are also becoming frustrated with these advertisements, which makes me wonder why they are still running. Also, given the number of negative ads put out by McCain about Obama, I was surprised to learn that he approached Obama very early on about running a clean campaign. Obama, although thinking it was a nice idea, never followed through. Now McCain seems to be the one on the attack and cleary it is not saving his campaign at this point.
I do think that ads are playing an integral role in this year's election. What one sees more often is what they begin to believe. I actually saw a negative Obama ad run by the McCain campaign on t.v. IMMEDIATELY followed by a positive Obama ad run by the Obama campaign. This automatically made McCain look like a dirty politician, relying on slurs to win the campaign, while Obama looked as if he were simply relying on his good credentials to pull him through. I thought it was very interesting on the station's part to do so, making me wonder if they were somewhat biased in their beliefs...
I think it is a shame that in the final weeks of campaigning, voters are still being exposed to the same negative television advertisements. These ads, rather than resonating with voters, are at this point, just off-putting. I agree that candidates may want to consider what the voters want to hear. I think people, especially young voters, and all voters in a time of great economic and political uncertainty, want to hear about the issues, rather than attacks on each others past associations or current credentials.
I agree. I believe that voters are growing increasingly impatient with viewing negative advertisements, especially growing closer to the actual election. Candidates need to realize that voters, especially in times of economic and political uncertainty, want to hear about the issues, not about the past associations of the candidates.
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