In this year’s flurry of political smears, the Obama campaign has attempted to cast itself as above such tactics. His image of the Washington outsider with a new approach to politics lends itself to a down-to earth, positive campaign. However, in reality, few attacks on him have gone unanswered, and Obama essentially equals McCain in number of negative ads aired. Despite his public image as running the “nice” campaign, Barack Obama has shown from the start that he is not afraid to go negative.
Obama’s first televised attack ads appeared early on in the primaries, aiming criticisms at his fellow democrats Edwards and Clinton. These ads focused largely on one of the most salient issues in this year’s democratic primary; healthcare reform. Obama was able to establish himself as a relative moderate on the issue, criticizing the other two for including mandates in their plans which would have required people to buy healthcare. This was part of a decidedly negative race for the nomination, including especially nasty exchanges between Obama and Clinton, which many thought would tear a rift in the Democratic Party as it went into the primaries. However, in looking back it seems that Obama has been able to unite the party very well.
The ads did not let up once the general election began, and Obama has found a great deal of success in casting McCain as a rich, out-of touch old timer who will continue Bush’s policies. Take the below ad, which capitalizes on a recent gaffe by McCain in which he “couldn’t remember” how many houses he owned:
The ad not only criticizes the republican’s economic policies, but deliberately attacks his substantial wealth. He attempts to cast McCain as the “rich, white republican”, ruining his reputation with the middle and lower class, a group which makes up the bulk of Obama’s supporters. This ties into Obama’s use of Bush as a negative comparison to Senator McCain, citing his voting record as a definitive tie to the president:
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/05/obama-strikes-back-with-negative-ad/

The president’s approval numbers are so low that he was not even allowed to speak at his own party’s convention for fear of associating him with McCain. Using bush’s image to attack his opponent has become a central element in Obama’s campaign strategy.
Despite the appearance of blatantly negative ads such as these, Obama has been able to appear as the “nice guy. Although negative ads usually do work, the public holds a general distaste for negative campaigning. By using ads which criticize his opponents’ negativity, Obama has quite successful to this end, despite the obvious contradiction of an “attack ad attacking an attack ad”. Obama first used this strategy against the Clinton campaign, in which he referenced public resentment to her “overly negative” campaign, even in her own hometown. This would be a precursor to his “Low Road” ad, which condemns McCain’s attacks for being false and overly negative:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHN9bLCgF7k

While both sides have accused the other of being too attack-oriented, Obama’s that seem to be resonating more in the eyes of the public. Obama’s considerable funding advantage has allowed him to positively inundate the press with advertisements; some estimates say that Obama can play nearly seven ads for each one of McCain’s. Obama seems to be winning this ad-war, and it is highly likely that his negative ads will ultimately doom McCain in the eyes of the public as he surges to a near ten-point lead going into Election Day.


For further reading:


“Obama Launches First Negative Ad” NBC. Retrieved from : http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2007/12/obama-launches.html november3rd 2008

Alexovich, Ariel . 2008. New York Times . retrieved from: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/05/obama-strikes-back-with-negative-ad/ November 3rd 2008

http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/media_entertainment/obama-and-mccains-ads-equally-negative/