negative campaigning – News Stories About negative campaigning - Page 3

Oct 10, 2008 4:10 AM CDT

McCain Drops Ayers Bomb for First Time

Candidate rips Obama's 'truthfulness' at angry rally

(Newser) - John McCain has attacked Barack Obama for his links to political radical Bill Ayers for the first time, Politico reports. McCain, who had previously left the assault to Sarah Palin, told a raucous Wisconsin rally that booed every mention of Obama's name that the issue went to the heart of...

Hey, GOP:
Let's Emulate Obama's Cool

OPINION

Oct 9, 2008 7:57 AM CDT

Hey, GOP: Let's Emulate Obama's Cool

Attack ads worked in 2004. That's not where we're at: Frum

(Newser) - David Frum plans to vote for John McCain, but with the economy in ruin, anyone who thinks the GOP can win “by banging on about William Ayers and Jeremiah Wright is...to put it mildly...severely under-estimating the electoral importance of pocketbook issues.” These desperate attacks “are...

Facing Actual Voters
Can Be Tall Order

OPINION

Oct 7, 2008 2:20 PM CDT

Facing Actual Voters Can Be Tall Order

Candidates won't be as easily able to duck pointed questions in tonight's debate format

(Newser) - The presidential candidates will be walking into a lion’s den tonight, forced to face those most dangerous of creatures: undecided voters. The town-hall debate could be a “snooze-fest,” writes John Dickerson on Slate, but there’s also a chance “Ponytail Guy”—the town-haller who famously...

McCain Gets Testy in
Des Moines

Oct 1, 2008 1:34 PM CDT

McCain Gets Testy in Des Moines

Chides newspaper editors for questions on Palin, truth of ads

(Newser) - John McCain showed his combative side in a videotaped interview with the Des Moines Register yesterday, taking umbrage at questions about whether Sarah Palin might be inexperienced and whether some of his campaign ads might have stretched the truth. “I have always had 100%, absolute truth, and that's been...

Noonan: What if
Neither Man Is
Up to the Job?

OPINION

Sep 19, 2008 10:45 AM CDT

Noonan: What if Neither Man Is Up to the Job?

Things will get mean out there

(Newser) - The election is about to enter a dark, mean period writes Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal, as the country confronts a terrifying possibility: What if neither man is up for the job? Thanks to the economy, anxiety is at a fever pitch, but “I haven’t heard...

McCain's Lies Cross the Line

OPINION

Sep 18, 2008 12:59 PM CDT

McCain's Lies Cross the Line

Senator has run a dirty campaign

(Newser) - Politicians often stretch the truth, but John McCain has taken things to a new level, writes Joe Klein in Time. Journalists usually play softball when criticizing candidates’ falsehoods, but now even the restrained New York Times editorial board is calling McCain a liar. McCain’s campaign has been a “...

McCain Sheds Honor
in Heat of Campaign

OPINION

Sep 16, 2008 2:45 PM CDT

McCain Sheds Honor in Heat of Campaign

Columnist, a longtime fan of the straight-shooting senator, sorely disappointed

(Newser) - John McCain's dishonesty in this race has turned him into the kind of politician the candidate once professed to hate, writes Richard Cohen—a one-time fan of the Arizona senator—in the Washington Post. McCain’s lies—most blatantly expressed on The View in response to a question about misleading...

McCain Running 'Dishonorable' Campaign: Ad

Sep 16, 2008 11:23 AM CDT

McCain Running 'Dishonorable' Campaign: Ad

In face of rising GOP tide, Obama camp sharpening attacks

(Newser) - Barack Obama has launched a new ad accusing John McCain of running a “disgraceful, dishonorable campaign,” part of a wider pushback against Republican attacks, the Washington Post reports. With McCain pulling even in the polls, the campaign held a series of internal strategy meetings, including a rare Sunday...

After 9/11 Truce,
Name-Calling Back On

Sep 12, 2008 2:22 PM CDT

After 9/11 Truce, Name-Calling Back On

McCain 'out of touch,' Obama ad charges; Dem 'disrespectful' to Palin, Mac counters

(Newser) - Hours after making a joint appearance at a memorial ceremony for the Sept. 11 attacks, John McCain and Barack Obama unleashed harsh new attacks of their own, reports the Chicago Tribune. With the McCain camp blasting Obama as desperate and “disrespectful” to Sarah Palin, the Obama campaign made a...

Obama Steps Up
Assault on McCain

Sep 12, 2008 9:12 AM CDT

Obama Steps Up Assault on McCain

Candidate to go on the attack as party frets about Palin

(Newser) - The Barack Obama campaign kicks off its leaner, meaner approach today, reports the New York Times, going on the offensive with a New Hampshire speech and new ads in an attempt to wrest momentum back from the GOP. The candidate's strategists say it has long been the plan to get...

Mac Misleads
in Obama Sex-Ed Ad

ANALYSIS

Sep 10, 2008 11:49 AM CDT

Mac Misleads in Obama Sex-Ed Ad

Legislation Republican is criticizing meant to protect kindergartners from pedophiles

(Newser) - John McCain’s new campaign ad accusing Barack Obama of voting to teach kindergarten kids the explicit details of sex, is “deliberately misleading,” Margaret Talev notes for McClatchy. While in the Illinois legislature, Obama voted in favor “age-appropriate” sex ed—which for young kids would primarily consist...

Biden & Co.
Take Cue
From Rove

Opinion

Aug 28, 2008 12:14 PM CDT

Biden & Co. Take Cue From Rove

Dems' new plan of attack follows map left by GOP spinmeister

(Newser) - Joe Biden’s speech last night mapped out the new plan of attack for Democrats against John McCain, and it’s positively Rovian, Walter Shapiro writes on Salon. The Democrats went directly for McCain’s biggest strength—national security—and tried to turn it into a weakness. “These times...

McCain Borrows Clinton's
'3am' Attack

Aug 26, 2008 12:54 PM CDT

McCain Borrows Clinton's '3am' Attack

'Hillary's Right,' new ad proclaims

(Newser) - John McCain has resurrected Hillary Clinton’s “3am” attack ad, and will be running a modified version in several battleground states, USA Today reports. The Republican's ad reruns a portion of Clinton’s, along with clips of Clinton attacking Obama’s experience, and ends with the tag, “Hillary’...

GOP Looks to Rain on Convention Parade

Aug 26, 2008 5:53 AM CDT

GOP Looks to Rain on Convention Parade

Republicans aim to upstage rival; Dems plan to respond in kind

(Newser) - The days of the parties giving each other a breather during convention week are long gone, the New York Times reports. As Democrats reveled in Denver yesterday, the Republicans began popping balloons--launching attack ads, holding press conferences underscoring the Clinton-Obama divide, and trotting their candidate out on the Tonight Show....

GOP Playbook: Find Foe's Strength and Attack It

OPINION

Aug 23, 2008 8:06 PM CDT

GOP Playbook: Find Foe's Strength and Attack It

(Newser) - Republican strategists are as adept as judo masters at turning opponents' strengths against them, Michael Kinsley writes in the Washington Post. With "genius, courage, creativity and utter ruthlessness," they managed to turn John Kerry's Vietnam service into a liability and Michael Dukakis' humble roots into elitism. Now, even...

Obama Ads
Hone Attack
in Key States

Aug 20, 2008 9:52 AM CDT

Obama Ads Hone Attack in Key States

Wave of negative ads slams McCain on the economy

(Newser) - Barack Obama has launched a wave of hard-hitting ads attacking John McCain ads in key states, the New York Times reports. The ads, reflecting a new get-tough Obama, lambaste McCain for being out of touch with Americans' economic struggles. Some have criticized the ads for misleading voters, but Democratic strategists...

If You're
Running on Honor, Don't
Tell Lies

OPINION

Aug 19, 2008 5:05 PM CDT

If You're Running on Honor, Don't Tell Lies

GOP falsehoods lead to 'smear gap': Alter

(Newser) - Never mind merely unflattering attacks; Jonathan Alter addresses the issue of outright falsehoods, as measured by an impartial fact-checking organization, in the two presidential campaigns, and finds the McCain camp has issued many more. The "smear gap" belies John McCain's vision of himself as an honor-first kind of...

Obama Nation Author Has Made Career
of Wild Claims

analysis

Aug 14, 2008 7:30 PM CDT

Obama Nation Author Has Made Career of Wild Claims

Here's a look at some of his most outlandish

(Newser) - Author Jerome Corsi, he of the Kerry Swift Boat book and the new attack tome on Barack Obama, has a long history of, um, provocative theories. For instance: The world's oil supplies are nearly infinite because oil constantly replenishes itself. Politico takes a look at some of his more outlandish...

Mac's Preferred Contest: Obama as Incumbent

OPINION

Aug 11, 2008 3:00 PM CDT

Mac's Preferred Contest: Obama as Incumbent

Republican can't win if debate is about him or Bush: Dionne

(Newser) - John McCain is doing perhaps the only thing he can to win this race—casting Barack Obama as the incumbent and attacking him, writes E.J. Dionne Jr. in the Washington Post. It makes sense: People are tiring of the heavy coverage of Obama, it seems, and McCain knows that...

Counterpunch Too Weak for Strategists

Aug 7, 2008 4:11 PM CDT

Counterpunch Too Weak for Strategists

Strategists urging Obama to bring tougher attacks on McCain

(Newser) - After weeks of enduring blistering attacks from John McCain, Barack Obama is launching a counter-attack. His new “Maverick” ad is his sharpest yet, calling McCain out on his similarities to George Bush. But Democratic strategists still don’t think Obama is hitting hard enough, the Washington Post reports. “...