With all this negative advertising flying everywhere I think it's pretty clear that John McCain is winning the battle....for now. More importantly though, will he lose the war because of it?
Call it half truths, misleading, downright lies, or even mostly true, whatever. John McCain has gotten inside Obama's head. It's not pretty but it's true. Look, let's talk political strategy here ok? If your opponent's campaign is great at organizing and is tapping into a new political enthusiasm not seen for quite some time then you need to figure out how to bring him down a peg or two.
The celebrity ads did that to a degree and now with all these negative (some will say untruthful) ads it brings Obama down from his "new kind of politics" perch into the mud for a little free-wheeling wrestling match. Obama now spends some of his time responding to these attacks because he has to. Guess what? His speech may be only 10 percent about McCain's negative ads but that's all the media covers so now it looks like Obama and McCain are playing on the same level. It may be a masterful political stroke but the jury is still out on whether some of these ads will catch up to McCain. They are clearly designed to get inside Obama’s head AND relay to voters that there are huge doubts about the guy.
Supporters of McCain will make the argument that McCain's ads are truthful to a certain extent. They may not be 100% truthful but people don't get up everyday and run to their computer to look at factcheck.org. The ads plant some doubt about Obama. It accomplishes a goal. I'm not saying it's right but negative ads do work. Think about it. Negative ads may ride McCain to The White House and do you think the media will be talking about that in January of 2009? They'll be talking about McCain's first term. These negative ads will be distant memories.
What say you? Are McCain and Obama both guilty of playing this game or has McCain taken it to a new level?