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Senator Obama, this is truly a good day for America. Too often the achievements of our opponents go unnoticed. So I wanted to stop and say, congratulations. How perfect that your nomination would come on this historic day. Tomorrow, we'll be back at it. But tonight Senator, job well done. I'm John McCain and I approved this message. “100 percent of John McCain’s ads have been attack ads.” – Barack Obama This point is relatively petty, and quite frankly, it isn’t shocking that Obama would say something untrue. But to suggest that McCain’s advertising has been generally negative is probably...

With the news that the McCain campaign is launching a full assault on Obama's associates, preparedness, and judgment in a TV ad campaign to start Wednesday -- as detailed in this morning's Washington Post -- the Obama campaign is planning a pre-emptive assault on the TV airwaves to start Monday. Gov. Sarah Palin got the ball rolling this morning, going after Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., for his association with Professor William Ayers, a former member of the radical group the Weather Underground, saying Obama "is someone who sees America it seems as being so imperfect, imperfect enough that he’s palling...

If you're not a Minnesota, you probably haven't seen the blizzard of TV commercials emanating from Norm Coleman's and Al Franken's campaigns for the US Senate. Trust me, these ads are bare-knuckled. The first one is an attack ad by Coleman. The second is a rebuttal ad by Al Franken. And the third is a rebuttal by Coleman to Franken's rebuttal. Watch them in the exact order below... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJUxtfSdaX0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hZxxEKmJaY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nETYU-znTA

Barack Obama has aired substantially more negative TV ads than John McCain following the political conventions, a study released yesterday found. The University of Wisconsin analysis showed that 77 percent of Obama's ads that ran from Sept. 6-13 were negative - nearly all of the critical spots portraying McCain as a clone of President Bush. By comparison, 56 percent of McCain's ads were considered negative for attacking Obama. The most frequently aired Obama ad is called "Same" - a 30-second spot that shows five different shots of McCain with Bush. McCain's most frequently shown ad is "Original Mavericks," portraying the...

Barack Obama had a rough night in Texas and Ohio, and some are even taking a contentious press conference he recently endured as a sign the MSM might be turning on him. But the junior senator from Illinois can still count on one MSMer in his corner: Robin Roberts. A few weeks ago, as I noted here, the GMA co-anchor conducted a softball session for the ages with Obama. Today, Hillary Clinton made the rounds of all the morning network news shows. The toughest questioning by far came from Roberts, in this exchange. ROBIN ROBERTS: What do you think the...

The grainy black-and-white images appear on television, while ominous music plays in the background. It's another in a blizzard of negative political ads and before you consciously know it, the message takes hold of your brain. You may not want it to, but it works just about instantly. In fact, the ad's effects on the brain "are actually shocking," says UCLA psychiatry professor Dr. Marco Iacoboni. Iacoboni's brain imaging research from the 2004 presidential campaign revealed that viewers lost empathy for their own candidate once he was attacked. Scientists around the country are logging the emotional and physical effects of...

Every two years, The Stiletto hears the same lament: This year, candidates have hit a new low in negative campaigning. This election is no exception. "Both political parties are functioning in the 2006 House races as factories for attack ads, but the National Republican Campaign Committee's work stands out this year for the sheer volume of assaults on the personal character of Democratic House challengers," claims a report issued by the Annenberg Political Fact Check, a project of media and public policy think tank The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. The report continues: The ads being...

Minnesota's DFL Party shelled out at least $800,000 in independent spending for November's state House elections, with almost half of it going toward negative ads and mailings against Republicans, who spent about $10,000, a report says. The election produced a loss of 13 seats for Republicans in the GOP-controlled House, and the conventional wisdom had it that a stalled legislative session earlier this year and the failure to finance key building programs for some districts soured voters on many House Republicans. Fueling some of that discontent was the money spent by political parties and independent groups, as detailed in the...

KERRY'S GLASS HOUSEKerry Was For Negative Ads Before He Was Against Them___________________________________"'Americans need a real conversation over our future,' Kerry said in a speech at a school in Spring Green, Wisconsin. 'What they don't need is all these trumped up advertisements, they just make people curl up and walk away,' added the Massachusetts senator. 'I'm calling them "misleadisments,"' Kerry said of the adverts. 'It's all scare tactics…'" ("Bush Sharpens Jabs Against Kerry Ahead Of Debates," Agence France Presse, 9/28/04)KERRY'S COMMENTS NEWS TO KERRY CAMPAIGNKerry-Edwards 2004, "Doesn't Get It," 30 Seconds, Sept. 27, 2004ü      "There he goes again. George Bush said...

One change voters may have noticed in this year's political campaigns shows up in commercials paid for by candidates. Toward the end of a TV or radio spot, the candidate comes on to identify himself and say, "I approved this message." That development is one of the intended results of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill of 2002. The "stand by your ad" provision makes these declarations mandatory. The idea was to discourage nasty attack ads by forcing candidates to personally endorse everything said on their behalf, making them more accountable for the messages put out by their campaigns and improving...

Live Convention Video, 7 - 11 p.m. ET• Sen. John F. Kerry• Max Cleland• Kerry's daughters, Alexandra and Vanessa Kerry• former Green Beret Jim Rassman• Madeleine Albright• Sen. Joe Biden (Del.)• Wesley Clark• Rep. James Clyburn (S.C.)• Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.)• Rep. Ed Markey (Mass.)• Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald (Calif.)• Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D.C.)• House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.)• Rep. Louise Slaughter (N.Y.)• John Sweeney, President of AFL-CIO• Gov. Mark Warner (Va.)

<p>When Dick Gephardt and Howard Dean eviscerated one another in Iowa with ferociously negative ads, John Kerry proved to be the beneficiary, cleverly exploiting the free ride that began on Iowa's wintry caucus night all the way to presumptive-nominee status. As this newspaper has noted, Mr. Kerry also benefited greatly from the fact that Messrs. Dean and Gephardt had foolishly promised to eliminate all of the tax cuts enacted under President Bush, including the substantial tax relief given to middle-class families. For his part, Mr. Kerry pledged only to repeal the tax cuts for those earning more than $200,000. With the Democratic presidential candidates having collectively spent more than $190 million through Super Tuesday on March 2, much of it blistering President Bush, Mr. Kerry emerged in fine shape, leading the incumbent in several polls.</p>

<p>March 27, 2004 -- John Kerry - more than any other Democrat - attacked President Bush in TV ads during the presidential primary season, a new nonpartisan study found.</p> <p>The survey of television advertising found that 78 percent of Kerry's primary commercials - and all of his general-election ads so far - were critical of Bush.</p>

The moment of political victory or defeat most often passes unnoticed by journalists and the insiders of the respective political campaigns. It is only in the retrospective of history that it becomes clear, and, even then, it is often distorted by the myopia of historians. But March 2004 gives every sign of going down in history as the crucial month of the presidential campaign. It will, very possibly, be recorded as the month in which Sen. John Kerry lost the election. Fresh from his successes in the Democratic primaries and the Super Tuesday concession of North Carolina Sen. John Edwards,...

WASHINGTON -- The fierce campaign for the White House is fully underway, with both sides launching negative attack campaigns against their opponents. The war in Iraq and the economy take center stage in the campaigns of Republican President George W. Bush and his Democratic candidate Senator John Kerry. According to the Bush administration, Kerry is falsely claiming that some foreign leaders prefer him to President Bush. "If you're going to make an accusation in the course of a presidential campaign, you ought to back it up with facts," Bush said. In Phoenix, Arizona, Monday, Vice President Dick Cheney elaborated on...

Go Negative...Please! When did it become politically incorrect to correct your opponent's politics? Who decided that legitimate differences of opinion over issues could not be dealt with by, dare we say it, arguments? For the sake of argument, our view is that the politically incorrect police have ordained that any attempt to point out a political opponent's shortcomings is viewed as "going negative"...a tactic that can't even be discussed in polite circles. Imagine what the headlines would be after the first Lincoln-Douglas debate if they were held today: "Lincoln goes negative...candidate says Douglas not best man for presidency." The first...

Castellanos (inset) in front of screenshots of the Bush-Cheney '04 television ad "100 Days." Going negative He's the father of the modern attack ad, and he's behind the Bush campaign's new wave of anti-Kerry spots. Alex Castellanos is known as vicious, irresponsible -- and effective. - - - - - - -- - - - - By Eric Boehlert March 15, 2004 | The Bush campaign launched its first negative attack ad on television late last week, earlier than in any presidential race in history. For an incumbent president to abandon the elevated surroundings of his White House Rose Garden...

<p>Fighting earlier and uglier than usual, President Bush and Democrat John Kerry are in a race to shape the White House campaign on their terms -- tax cuts and terrorism for Bush, joblessness and change for Kerry.</p> <p>Both camps can taste victory, but fear defeat at the hands of an evenly divided electorate.</p>

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush will unleash his first negative ads against John Kerry on Thursday, accusing the Democrat of seeking to raise taxes by $900 billion and wanting to "delay defending America," the Associated Press has learned. "John Kerry: Wrong on taxes. Wrong on defense," says a female announcer in a new 30-second ad that will begin airing in battleground states.</p>

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) will unleash his first negative ads against John Kerry (news - web sites) on Thursday, accusing the Democrat of seeking to raise taxes by $900 billion and wanting to "delay defending America," the Associated Press has learned. "John Kerry: Wrong on taxes. Wrong on defense," says a female announcer in a new 30-second ad that will begin airing in battleground states. A second ad, also premiering Thursday, tells voters they face choices on the economy, health care and the war on terrorism. "We can go forward with confidence, resolve and hope. Or...

Poll: Negative race cost Sanchez Voters blame both men but find Perry more palatable 11/27/2002 Associated Press LUBBOCK - About three-fourth of voters who thought the governor's race was negative blamed candidates Rick Perry and Tony Sanchez equally, but Mr. Sanchez apparently suffered more, a survey conducted by Texas Tech students showed. "I think that's the big highlight of the whole survey," Cherie Maestas, an assistant professor of political science at Tech, said Tuesday. "People's opinion of Sanchez suffered more." On a scale of one to five with five being the most favorable, Mr. Perry's average favorability rating among...