Negative Political Advertising and Its Pitfalls

The recent weeks have proved tough for John McCain. While Obama continues to generate hundreds of millions of dollars, new supporters, and make inroads into typical GOP strongholds, the McCain camp has lashed out using the only strategy left: negative advertisements.

Now, negative advertising does work to a certain extent. It can effectively draw supporters to a non-issue that attacks the character of the other candidate. It can legitimize certain unsaid feelings that certain members of the electorate harbor. It can also prove to draw the other candidate into a series of mud-slinging debates, and force the campaign to be about who is best suited to attack the other. And, negative ads have been used in every major national campaign since the advent of the broadcast television.

However, negative advertising is a slippery slope. While it may be important to call into question a candidate's past dealings, record, and associations, it is quite another to make wild assumptions based on facts. Negative ads can move quite quickly from negative portrayals of past voting, to generalizations about a candidate's true patriotism or unfounded accusations relating to a candidate's family. Once the decision has been made to go negative, there can be a step by step process that eventually eliminates all aspects of the policies and goals from the advertisements.

For McCain, we have seen this play out recently. As he lags in the polls, his campaign strategy has been to attack the character of Barack Obama. The most notable example are the relentless ads that force-feed the electorate the association that Obama has had with William Ayers. While the association may be valid, and is important for the American people to know, the arc of this new strategy is dangerous. As the campaign moves closer and closer to calling Obama a 'known terrorist' for his dealings with Ayers, the GOP stronghold has found new attack legs. In the famous videos of supporters yelling 'kill him' and 'terrorist,' it is possible to see the degradation of this failed attempt at character assasination.

Further, the result of this devolution at the McCain rallies has led to Obama-friendly sound bites from high-ranking GOP members in Congress. Some are disgusted with the tactics and their subsequent results, and others are simply upset that their party has been led down the road of shame. The key endorsement of Colin Powell has led to further straying by members of the GOP. It is clear that the negative strategies that have helped other candidates gain an edge have backfired on the McCain campaign.

It seems that political candidates and strategists are not completely tuned in with the voter consciousness. The typical fear-mongering and smear campaigns of the past are not working in this election. The question is, what are the American people asking for? It appears that the American people this year are far more interested in discussing policies, plans, and goals for the next four years. Dissatisfied with a lame-duck president who has led us into the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, the electorate is yearning for hope, inspiration, and a sense of peace that cannot be satisfied with character attacks, vicious smears, and the swift-boat tactics that worked so effectively for President Bush.