Negative campaign

[ShapeShifter]

If there was a backlash on the early negative campaigning from both side who would you think/believe it will benefit from it?

[M]

Probably Bush. Kerry jumped too quickly to say Bush was campaigning negatively in such strong language; Bush had not yet done enough, especially compared to Kerry over the past few months, to justify it to the average voter.

[opebo]

Bush will benefit from both negative campaigning and any backlash to it.

[M]

I'm inclined to agree with that too. Despite a year of people calling Bush dishonest, two years of people calling him too quick to act without thinking, and three of people calling him stupid, he still has good polling for most personality traits, especially honesty and leadership. People naturally like Bush and want to trust him; it's not charisma, more like that nameless something that lets certain people make friends easily in high school. Kerry still feels aloof, patrician, and blueblood.

[zachman]

The Bush ads are welll produced, and they should do quite a bit to save him. Does anyone else believe as I do that political television advertising should be banned?

[opebo]

The Bush ads are welll produced, and they should do quite a bit to save him. Does anyone else believe as I do that political television advertising should be banned?

NO way!  Its free speech, plus money and spending it on advertising, ect, is our only chance against you leftists.

[angus]

Does anyone else believe as I do that political television advertising should be banned?

Others do.  But as they continue to learn and grow, they will not.  Neither will you.

[zachman]

I agree that campaign advertising is a form of free speech, but it takes advantage of the most vulnerable and produces false impressions of candidates.

[opebo]

I agree that campaign advertising is a form of free speech, but it takes advantage of the most vulnerable and produces false impressions of candidates.

The most vulnerable?  You mean mentally?  

[zachman]

Yes I do. Television advertising is a sleasy atmosphere to get away with exaggerations and mischarecterizations that mislead non-ideological voters, who do not look beneath the skin of television advertising.

[ElCidGOP]

You can't ban free speech.  The most ridiculous legislation in recent memory was the campaign finance law.  It did nothing, now we have these 527s like Moveon.org and the mediafund.  They are out of control.  For all the disadvantage that Kerry has in money, it is made up by the 527s.  I live in Tampa, the bulls eye for the next election and everytime I see a Bush message, I see a moveon.org message two or three commercials later.  

At this point, after getting hammered on every issue for MONTHS, it is a miracle that Bush's numbers aren't in the 30s or 40s.  Politically, Bush is a lot better off then people give him credit for.  Kerry is an idiot, and Kerry  hasn't even begun to really prove it yet.  It two weeks since the end of the primaries, he has been exposed on all sides.  The dems picked a real loser, he is worse than Dukakis and Dean.  At least Dean stood for something.  The undoing of the dems will be their lack of passion for Kerry and their utter hatred of Bush.  Hating someone never brings anything politically.  The only exception was Nixon, who screwed himself after winning a landslide in 72.

Back to my main point, you can't ban political ads, its free speech.  Porn is effective as appealing to our base nature, but you can't ban that.  (thankfully)

The Bush ads are welll produced, and they should do quite a bit to save him. Does anyone else believe as I do that political television advertising should be banned?

[zachman]

Bush has good ads, and they are equal in strength to the haystack ads (I think it by the Americans for Jobs group).

[StevenNick]

The only way there would be a backlash from negative campaigning is if there were more than two viable candidates in the race.  In a race with three or more viable candidates, it is possible that two of the candidates can be so busy sniping at eachother that the third candidate can sneak past them both.  But in this case Kerry and Bush are the only two viable candidates.  There won't be a negative backlash.

[zachman]

That doesn't happen in Presidential elections. In Primaries yes though.