The Highs And Lows Of Attack Ads

CBS Evening News Breaks Down The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Of The Campaigns

(CBS)  There's no disputing that the presidential campaign is turning negative - on the trail and on the television. More attack ads are being aired, and they can be very effective. But not always. Jeff Greenfield has "The Good, The Bad And The Ugly."

The Good

"Read my lips: no new taxes," George H.W. Bush said, as quoted in an ad from Bill Clinton's campaign. The ad continued: "And then passed the second-largest tax increase in history."

The best negative ads are those that quote a candidate's words - accurately - and turn them against the candidate, as with the above 1992 Clinton campaign ad. It finished: "Don't read his lips, read his record."

Or the famous "weathervane" ad from 1972, highlighting George McGovern's changes of mind. It said: "Last year ... this year ... the question is, what about next year?"

And in 2004, the Bush campaign used John Kerry's hobby to make their point.

"Where does John Kerry stand? Any way the wind blows," it said, to images of Kerry windsurfing.

The Bad: Over The Top

So what makes a bad negative ad? When it goes too far ... take the Bush '92 campaign ad which tried to present Clinton's home state of Arkansas as something out of a Stephen King novel.

"America can't afford to take that risk," it said.

And then there are ads which are either distortions or flat-out untrue, which candidates run even after fact checkers call them out.

John McCain has done it. He attached Barack Obama to "skyrocketing taxes on life savings, electricity and home heating oil." Not true.

And another ad claimed: "Obama's one accomplishment? Legislation to teach 'comprehensive sex education' to kindergarteners." Also an exaggeration.

McCain has said: "He voted 94 times for higher taxes." Untrue.

But so has Obama.

One ad says: "Washington sold them out with the help of people like John McCain." Another: "John McCain refused to support loan guarantees for the auto industry." That's an exaggeration.

Obama's "Promise" ad says: "McCain voted three times in favor of privatizing Social Security. Cutting benefits in half." That's also not true.

The Ugly: "Who Ya Gonna Call?"

But for this week's a jaw-dropper, here's an ad from a 2006 Congressional race, where the famous "3 a.m. phone call" argument takes on a whole new meaning.

"Who calls a fantasy sex hotline - and then bills taxpayers? Michael Arcuri," one ad said.

And, well, that candidate won.

[albertw40]

McCain uses attack ads to try to make us forget. McCain has to somehow make folks like me forget that he and those around him were the ones who helped cause the economic meltdown in the first place. He has surrounded himself with lobbyists like Rick Davis who got millions from Fannie and Freddie. McCain and his next Secretary of the Treasury Phil Gramm voted for and promoted the very deregulation which led to all this. His advisers (like Carly Fiorina) got huge golden parachutes for laying people off work. While people were losing jobs, homes, pensions, health care, retirement funds (2 Trillion in the last two weeks), and while ordinary people were paying the highest inflation in 27 years, the rich kept getting richer, all because of the "deregulate at any cost" philosophy. Bush-Cheney, McCain-Gramm forgot a basic fact. The Middle Class working people are the backbone of this country. When you encourage corporations to become more profitable (temporarily) by laying off half their workers, you are encouraging eventual economic downfall. That''s what McCain-Gramm, Bush-Cheney did. I''ll never forget Bush''s "compassionate conservatistm." It turned out to be compassion for the rich and shaft the poor. No matter what he says or claims, I would expect more of the same from John McCain.

[randallk44]

robert2237- Your comments to harbinger09 are not thought out. First, our Forefathers has good reason for a separation of church and state, so that no one church would hold too much influence or seize control of the government as had happened many times in history preceding their time. Second, it is very presumptive of you to proclaim that his misgivings are about the ten commandments! You don''t think peoples misgivings might come from things like an evangelist calling for the assassination of another country''s leader, or the horrible number of victims who were sexually abused by leaders of various churches? I myself was a victim when I was only 5 years old. There is a reason our forefather''s wanted a separation, to protect one from the other, because they understood how much power becomes a corrupting influence.

[robert2237]

shelby0011 - You are asking some great questions. One thing I will say I keep hearing health care issues but from traveling all over the world I still think we have the best there is, no I know we have the best. I don''t want to be paying everyones health care that don''t want to work sorry I just think we are giving them to much and that keeps them asking for more and not looking to improve themslefs. Here is what I would like them to do with health care and McCain has been suggestion this. In fact if you look into some of the things he has said he wants then we would have more money in our pocket from his plan. What I would like to see is 1 Everyone should be able to purchase health care no matter your pass health. 2 As a employee if my company offers health care then they should just set what they will pay and let me pick what I want. 3 There should be a reasonable price on health care plans (goverment work with companies to do this) 4 Have policies that you can pick each coverd options (for instant my wife and I will never have any more kids but we have to pay for it because she is still of child bearing age) 5 no matter where I work I should be able to keep the same policy. 6 The biggest problem with the cost of health care is the insurance Drs. have to pay because of law suites. This should be addressed to where you cannot sue because you feel like you can get money out of them. There should be heavy rules on law suites and Dems have been rejecting this for years.

[robert2237]

harbinger09- You should not be so worried about the church and the bible. I know those 10 commandments can get you some wish they were the 10 suggestions but they aren''t. Then all those things in red in some bible''s really hard to understand. But you know what I find with people. It is not the things in the Bible that they don''t understand that bothers them it is the things they understand and know they are going down the wrong path.

[robert2237]

harbinger09- You really need to read something about the writters of our consititution. You will find that what people are saying as speration of church and state is nothing close to what was intended.

[randallk44]

I wonder how much of the panic is the result of people loosing further confidence in our government and leaders. BOTH parties seem to be busy at "business as usual" in their obsessive efforts to win. "Anything goes" is NOT the conduct of honorable men and women, yet that is very much what our leaders and those seeking to lead have become.

I have watched for years, all the corruption, agency after agency failing left and right. I myself am one of hundreds of thousands of Americans who were denied our Constitutional right to due process, denied for years!!! I have watched unimaginable numbers of professionals loosing their jobs, shipped overseas. And I could go on and on.

Politics as usual only robs me of all hope for the future of my country and myself. How long has it been since the CBSnews report on the Social Security Administration''s abuse of disabled persons, denying due process? Not so much as even an apology from Washington, no effort whatsoever to right the wrong! That is not honorable.

Thomas Jefferson said "A nation as a society forms a moral person, and every member of it is personally responsible for his society."

That is the kind of example our country needs now, not campaign strategies that would more closely resemble Ralph Waldo Emerson''s quote, "Society is a masked ball, where every one hides his real character, and reveals it by hiding"

[harbinger09]

DOUCMENTS AND VIDEO PROVE PALIN IGNORES SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE!!!! Sarah Palin''''s own records and video show her at her Wasilla Assemblies of God church promising church members that she will do all she can to inject God into the government. What the congregation and other taxpayers did not know--is that the plane trip, hotel and expenses to Wasilla were paid for by the taxpayer as Palin charged the entire trip to government expenses.

Wow, stay tuned Sarah--you are in the big leagues now--and you can''''t hide behind moose dressing or a misunderstanding--no respect for the law, no respect for the Constitution...when this is over, you may wish YOU were Bill Ayers.

http://www.rr.com/view/content
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Posted by harbinger09 at 02:46 PM : Oct 11, 2008

[albertw40]

It''s really time for the old politics to end. The negative ads don''t do anything to help retirees like me who have lost 1.2 trillion dollars in retirement funds in the last week. They don''t help the three quarters of a million people who lost jobs in the last nine months. They don''t help people who are losing homes, pensions, health care, not to mention jobs and retirement funds, and these people are still having to pay the highest inflation in 27 years. Most of McCain''s campaign advisers promoted and benefited from the companies which called all this. His adviser Carly Fiorina got a 40 million dollar parachute from HP for doing little more than laying off 18,000 people. McCain and his friend the next Secretary of the Treasury Phil Gramm were proponents of the philosophy that companies could become more profitable by laying off thousands of workers and moving operations overseas. They gave tax breaks to companies doing that. McCain expedited DHL taking over an American company, gutting it, and putting thousands out of work. I am glad to see McCain proposing some things to help the middle class right now (a real change for him), but I''m reminded of George W. Bush and his compassionate conservatism. Once he got in office his compassionate conservatism made the rich richer and gave the middle class the shaft. I suspect the same will happen with John McCain.

[shelby0011]

Bob please ask these debate questions: 1. How can either candidate & us as a society justify spending upwards of $100 MILLION dollars for this election? We wont even bring the current economy into this. What''s the justification for spending that much money when OUR children, elderly, & disabled citizens are suffering? How can this be fixed? It''s absurd & completely irresponsible for us to accept that. How many commercials can be shown on TV or on the radio? Wouldn''t once an hour each be sufficient? I am sick of ALL of the advertising, negative & otherwise. It''s irresponsible & negligent for us as a country to allow this & accept this when we have people suffering in the US & even $100 would help them. 2. With the healtcare crisis why is NO ONE addressing the root problem? Unless there''s something I dont know about insurance companies, it''s my belief that the problem is the actual COST of healthcare & not the company paying the bill. I had a hip replacement & just 4 days in the hospital, JUST the hospital bill was $34,000. That''s the problem. What''s going to be done about that? 3. Why on God''s green earth are we handing out charital monies to other countries when we have NONE to give!!?Again, our own citizens are suffering & dont get a thin dime. Grandma always said take care of your own before taking care of someone else''s. Please Bob ask these common sense questions & see if anyone answers. I doubt it!

[gollygee2]

Please, whoever makes the rules for debates, try and have the candidates agree to avoid mentioning each other or each others'' party. It would be so refreshing to hear only what the candidates think, what the candidates hope to accomplish, what guides the candidates thinking, etc. Enough with the name calling and sewer tactics.

[gollygee2]

Please, whoever makes the rules for debates, try and have the candidates agree to avoid mentioning each other or each others'' party. It would be so refreshing to hear only what the candidates think, what the candidates hope to accomplish, what guides the candidates thinking, etc. Enough with the name calling and sewer tactics.