Normally all these negative ads would work, why do you think they are not working this time?

[cags]

I believe that part of it is the fact that people ,dems, ind's, and repubs alike believe that McCain is a liar. Because otherwise these ads would be working, but I no one really even cares.

[Ian David]

1. Nobody can afford to buy cable to watch Fox "News" anymore. n/t

[Dr Fate]

2. It suprises me too. I guess 8 straight years of it was enough.

I should have had more faith in voters than I did.

[LSparkle]

3. People get sick of ANYTHING, even tasty cotton candy ...

We have a collective national stomach ache and have just
had enough of all this crap. It tasted good for a long
time but now we realize it's making us sick and, on top
of it, THERE'S NOTHING TO IT but a bunch of air ...

[DangerDave921]

4. couple reasons

1. McCain doesn't have the finances that Obama has so his ads are being drowned out by Obama's.

2. The economy is in meltdown, which the voters tend to blame on the Repubs. McCain has a tough mountain to climb.

3. Obama is just so calm and cool and collected in the debates that the negatives don't ring true.

[BuyingThyme]

5. Because Republicans have been completely discredited.

[Stuart G]

6. Simple...now there is an alternative news source...

That news source helps to often drive the news...It really did not exist as an effective force until very recently...You are using it right now.. That's all folks..

[Cyrano]

10. You got it, Stuart G

The net is changing the world.

Millions more Americans are on line now than there were in '04.

More people "get it" now than ever before. The Rethugs tactics are just about done. They can't peddle their crap when people have an alternative source of information.

[JimWis]

19. You are correct Stuart G. Plus we have web sites like

factcheck, etc. And the Republicans are a bit slow on the uptake in understanding how the internet has changed things. Their campaign tactics are sadly out of date. Plus I think people are getting sick of the same ole negative crap.

[Arugula Latte]

7. Obama is very likable. The attacks don't ring true with people.

[Cronus Protagonist]

12. Yeah, he has low negatives, high positives in appearance - very important

That's how Ronnie Reagan was able to be such a fascist and get away with it. Low negatives in appearance account for a teflon like coating - nothing sticks because people can't believe the bullcrap that's tossed around about such a shiny, nice person.

[salbi]

15. I was just thinking the same thing. People like Obama, for some reason they also liked Bush

Though i never agreed, a lot of people saw Bush as kind of a good ole boy. Some one they'd like to have a beer with, while they saw Kerry as a millionare who was totally out of touch with them, I think that made the lies easier to believe. With McCain, he's not very likeable, and the negative ads just kind of add to the grumpy old man persona. Just my opinion :)

[BklynChick]

8. part of it is OBAMA. i think the other part is much of negative message (not ads) is being delivere

by someone the American people don't find credible (Palin).

[City Lights]

9. I think it's because the problems we're facing are too serious.

People don't have time to mess around with the bullshit topics covered in McShame's negative ads while their life savings are going up in smoke.

[Bread and Circus]

11. Actually, people miss the point of negative ads and their general effect...

negative ads are mainly to suppress vote turnout but even the side that does the negative campaigning suffers lower voter turnouts. This has the effect of maximizing the power of a rabid base that will still turn out, thereby giving more control to parties. It's employed by both the Reps and the Dems, usually in a fight fire with fire tactic. Both sides trade negative attacks and smear campaigns in order to boil it down to base numbers, hoping you can whittle the other side down.

What negative campaigning doesn't do is actually sway people to your side.

Since Obama's campaign is run on inspiration as a key ingredient and the charges against him are too little, too late, and poorly constructed they have been ineffective. Obama/Biden's reference to McCain as a "War Hero" actually serves to keep their own side's morale up and keep their favorables up. Under the radar Obama has campaigned negatively but it has NOT BEEN PERSONAL ATTACKS so his critique is seen as more legitimate and less negative.

At least that's my take.

[Cass]

13. I think people have had enough of the bullshit. They want serious answers

to the huge problems we are facing. Voters want to see their elected officials talk intelligently about the issues and problems facing us. Hopefully the public is finally fed up with dirty polics, they sure to be rejecting much of it this year.

[EC]

14. They are all a bit over the top

and unbelievable...too fantasy based...

[Batgirl]

16. They can't wipe out the fact that they've presided over the shittiest era most people can remember.

In 2004 they could still get away with blaming their failures on the previous administration; this time, they are the previous administration.

It's similar to how they couldn't successfully spin their failures post-Katrina in spite of Herculean efforts. They tried, and failed, to blame the Dems then too.

After one of the most agonizing weeks in American history, with Bush and his key department secretaries embarrassed on national television, the blame, despite Rove's efforts to the contrary, ended up being placed firmly on the federal government. The administration, not Blanco and the state of Louisiana, took the hit, especially Michael Brown, who became a poster boy for ineptitude and was forced to resign from his job. Following Katrina, Bush's approval rating began to slip even more. "In the middle of the worst disaster in American history," Adam Sharp says, "the president was nowhere to be found and was still clearing brush on the ranch, when the previous iconic image people had of him was standing in the still-smoldering rubble of the World Trade Center 24 hours after the attacks and saying, 'I can hear you.' People were asking, 'Where is that moment here?'"
http://www.salon.com/books/excerpt/2008/06/06/rove_katrina/

They tried to have it both ways for too long. Portraying GOP leadership as powerful, heroic commanders, yet somehow not able to keep the cowardly, America-hating Dems from constantly thwarting their manly, take-charge nobility and creating all these disasters. At some point the contradiction becomes so obvious, even a thousand Rush Limbaughs wouldn't be able to successfully explain it away. At least to the mostly sane people.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

17. They are working.

Negative ads do what they do. They're not a magic bullet, just a vote-suppressor and marginal number mover.

Swimming works but people still drown every day.

[DeepBlueC]

24. that's the most trenchant comment here nt

[elizm]

18. Because people believe in OBAMA! nt

[Overseas]

20. Generational shift. Younger folks see through fake advertising.

They've been exposed to it since they were babies.

They've also seen that Democrats build up the budget through more taxes on the very top earners and Republicans build up the debt by cutting taxes and putting the costs onto future generations.

They know Republicans are bigger warmongers.

They recognize the ecological disasters impending if we do not rapidly switch to sustainable alternative energy sources like solar and wind.

[suston96]

21. Someone has already said....how do we know they aren't working? The polls? nt

[justiceischeap]

22. If people weren't losing their jobs at record rate, their homes, & if the economy weren't tanking

They just might work this election cycle. My point being people want to hear solutions not snark. Only one candidate is talking about solutions and that is why he is doing better in the polls.

[RoadRage]

23. Because the gigs up.. Negative Lying Ads got us Bush..

when clearly a Kerry or Gore presidency would have this country in a much better place. People know that the GOP will lie, steal & cheat to get elected.. and then shit all over its constituents for the next 4 - 8 years.

You can fool some of the people all of the time... all of the people some of the time, but 8 years later, you CAN NOT FOOL ALL OF THE PEOPLE ALL OF THE TIME.

[RagAss]

25. because Money Talks...Bullshit Walks.

[WindRiverMan]

26. Too Late! You go negative in September, during and right after the convention

McCain waited too long, people had already seen enough of Obama to make a decision. Really it comes down to who you gonna believe, JOhn McCain or your own lying eyes.

[Diamonique]

28. But they did go negative right after the conventions.

Obama went overseas, and McCain came out with the stupid "celebrity" crap.

They ran with that silly/stupid stuff for weeks. And it just made them look like asses. And it just went downhill for them from there.

[Hamlette]

27. Hillary Clinton and the long primary season

I know, sounds odd but a couple of things happened:

1. She tried out the negative stuff in a more velvet glove way than the GOP ever would so we are not "shocked" and glued to our TVs at the thought of Ayers or Wright or what have you now.

2. It gave Obama another 3-4 months of in your living room time and people decided they didn't hate him.

Nate said a few weeks back that they wouldn't work because the percentage of people who had formed a strong opinion of Obama was set a couple of months ago and it was very high. People had made up their minds. The numbers for Kerry or Gore doing that same period were not that "set". People still hadn't decided when the Swift boaters hit.

One other thing, I was looking for polling stats in the 1988 race and reveiwed just how nasty that race was. No body does nasty like the Bush family.

I would also add that I think Obama is pitch perfect. His speech on race spoke to all of us and was absolutely mesmerizing. (Yeah, maybe we have all been hypnotized.) And he really can throw some elbows (I don't think I've got that sports metaphor exactly right but you know what I mean.)

The comment about the robo calls being too nasty for Palin and when you have offended her sense of right and wrong you really have gone over the edge (he was much more eloquent and spot on and with enough humor to not look angry.