More Confirmation That McCain's Ad Campaign Is Now 100 Percent Negative

[Hope And Change]

More Confirmation That McCain's Ad Campaign Is Now 100 Percent Negative

By http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/profile/sargent">Greg Sargent - October 8, 2008, 12:18PM


As wehttp://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/10/mccain_campaigns_ad_spending_n.php"> reported here on Friday, the McCain campaign has shifted nearly all of its ad spending into negative ads by pulling its positive "Original Mavericks" spot and replacing it with an attack ad hitting Obama and his "liberal" allies in Congress.

Today the Wisconsin Advertising Project http://wiscadproject.wisc.edu/wiscads_release_100808.pdf">released new numbers confirming this and offering more detail on just how big the gulf in negativity is between the two campaigns. It finds that while McCain's spending was nearly 100 percent negative during the week ending October 4th, negative attack ads constituted roughly a third of Obama's ad spending.

The Wisconsin project also has a fascinating breakdown of how Obama is swamping McCain in state-by-state spending:

Over the past week, the two campaigns were roughly even in spending in Colorado, Michigan, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin. Meanwhile, the Obama campaign has outspent the McCain campaign by a margin of over 3 to one in Florida, over 2 to 1 in New Hampshire, over 3 to 2 in Nevada, over 8 to 1 in North Carolina, and over 3 to 1 in Virginia

Separately, Biden just made a reference to McCain's 100-percent-negative campaign while speaking in Florida, suggesting this meme may now become a stock reference in his stump speech.


http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/10/more_confirmation_that_mccains.php">Link

<snip>

During the week of September 28-October 4, nearly 100 percent of the McCain campaign’s advertisements were negative. During the same period, 34 percent of the Obama campaign’s ads
were negative.Comparing this presidential election to 2004, we see that both the McCain and Obama campaigns have aired more negative advertisements than did their counterparts. In all of 2004, 64 percent of the Bush campaign’s ads were negative, while to date, 73 percent of McCain’s ads have been negative. Similarly, 34 percent of all Kerry ads were negative while 61 percent of Obama’s have been. In 2004, the DNC aired a significant number of negative ads, while this year the DNC has been largely silent in the presidential race. According to Goldstein, “This year, Obama has his own message and he’s getting it out through his own campaign.Because of Obama’s huge fundraising totals, the DNC doesn’t have to make up the difference in advertising between the two candidates.”

http://wiscadproject.wisc.edu/wiscads_release_100808.pdf">Link

<snip>

[AndyA]

1. McCain/GOP doesn't have anything positive to sell.

What are they going to do, highlight Bush's last 8 years in office?

Talk about the robust economy?

Job growth?

Smaller government?

Transparency?

Peace around the world?

They don't have anything positive to sell, so they have to focus on their opponents negatives, and if there aren't any legitimate negatives, you make them up.

Really, it's pathetic but that's truly all they have to talk about. :shrug:

[izquierdista]

2. With the market so negative

Won't people want to vote for a positive?

[EC]

3. But the ads calling Obama liberal only works for his base

you know the 24% that still like*...We appreciate that he's the liberal he is and the center voters are more than likely looking for a liberal since they voted "compassionate conservative" in the past, the compassionate being the operative word.