negative campaigning

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Obama's Right to Go Negative
 Obama's Right to Go Negative
OPINION
Aug 7, 2008 2:24 PM CDT

Obama's Right to Go Negative

Obama stayed cool during primaries, but this is whole new ball game

(Newser) - Barack Obama is going negative on John McCain, something he never did in the primary race against Hillary Clinton. But that doesn’t mean he’s abandoning a winning strategy. The current race is worlds apart from his tête-à-tête with Clinton, Noam Scheiber writes in the New ...

Candidates Keen to Quit Bickering
Candidates Keen to Quit Bickering
OPINION
Aug 7, 2008 5:45 AM CDT

Candidates Keen to Quit Bickering

McCain, Obama each blame the other for negative campaign

(Newser) - John McCain and Barack Obama would prefer to steer the White House race out of the gutter and back onto the high road, writes David Broder in the Washington Post reports. In separate interviews, both candidates expressed frustration with the tone and direction of the campaign over the last two...

Republicans Scold McCain; Obama Camp Pounces

Negative turn generates anger toward candidate

(Newser) - A new Obama campaign memo obtained by Time documents Republican disapproval of the McCain camp’s recent tactics. Some highlights:
  • Pat Buchanan on the commercial juxtaposing Obama, Britney Spears, and Paris Hilton: "Look, this is not an effective ad.”
  • Ed Rollins: “John needs to be the deliberate,
...

Rove Legacy Tails McCain's New Top Dog

Schmidt takes the reins

(Newser) - Steve Schmidt is the new captain of the McCain campaign ship, which an ex-operative compares to the "Pirates of the Caribbean." Known as a taskmasker and carrying the seemingly oxymoronic reputation of a moderate Karl Rove protégé, Steve Schmidt isn't showing his hand just yet. The New ...

Let's Keep Britney, OJ Out of Campaign
 Let's Keep Britney,
 OJ Out of Campaign
OPINION
Aug 1, 2008 5:04 AM CDT

Let's Keep Britney, OJ Out of Campaign

McCain campaign beginning to conjure up racially loaded images of the past

(Newser) - John McCain's lurch into negative campaigning is beginning to echo loaded racial issues of the past, according to the New York Times editorial board. The "celebrity" attack ad against Barack Obama featuring Britney Spears and Paris Hilton recalls a Republican ad—from workers now on the McCain team—that...

Neither Side Has Played Race Card
Neither Side
Has Played
Race Card
OPINION
Aug 1, 2008 2:56 AM CDT

Neither Side Has Played Race Card

Accusations aside, Obama or McCain aren't guilty—yet

(Newser) - Accusations of "playing the race card" are flying back and forth between the John McCain and Barack Obama camps, but neither is truly guilty, Joan Walsh writes in Salon. McCain has run an "appalling low-road campaign" of late, but not a racist one, while Obama's comment about not...

McCain Was Going to Pounce On Obama Either Way
McCain Was Going to Pounce On Obama
Either Way
analysis
Jul 31, 2008 6:25 PM CDT

McCain Was Going to Pounce On Obama Either Way

His staff had two ads ready after Europe trip

(Newser) - It's common knowledge by now that a John McCain campaign ad took Barack Obama to task for not visiting wounded US troops in Germany. But David Kiley in BusinessWeek reports that the McCain camp had another ad ready, this one if Obama had visited the troops. It would have charged...

McCain Camp: Obama Playing 'Race Card'

Calls Dem's comment that he doesn't look like other prezs 'shameful'

(Newser) - John McCain’s campaign adviser accused Barack Obama today of having “played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck,” reports the New York Daily News. The Dem had yesterday described how opponents would use fear against him, saying, “You know,...

McCain Strays Off Message, But Which Message?
McCain Strays Off Message, But Which Message?
analysis
Jul 31, 2008 1:38 PM CDT

McCain Strays Off Message, But Which Message?

Candidate ad libs as staffers attempt to strategize

(Newser) - John McCain relishes interacting with voters and sparring with the press, a style that's helped earn him his "maverick" reputation even as it ties his advisers and staff in knots. The campaign as a whole is turning to Karl Rove-style tactics, but the candidate's unpredictable behavior is making it...

5 Things We Learned From Obama's Trip
5 Things We Learned
From Obama's Trip
OPINION
Jul 31, 2008 6:00 AM CDT

5 Things We Learned From Obama's Trip

Among them: Obama is a bit like Bush, and he needs to strike back harder at Mac

(Newser) - Here are five things we learned in the wake of Barack Obama’s overseas trip, via John Heilemann in New York:
  • Obama's got guts: The trip was “risky business, fraught with peril”—but we know now that he's willing to gamble if the potential payout is right.
  • His
...

Mac 'Celebrity' Attack Ad Signals New Battle Stage

Tactics echo Bush re-election strategy

(Newser) - John McCain's latest attack on Barack Obama as a self-absorbed "celebrity" candidate out of touch with ordinary Americans marks a new aggressive stage of his campaign, reports the New York Times. The "star power" offensive against Obama, sharper than earlier efforts, comes as key players in President Bush's...

Ex-McCain Adviser Slams Britney Ad as 'Childish'

Weaver breaks silence after leaving campaign last year

(Newser) - Former John McCain strategist and “Straight Talk Express" architect John Weaver blasted McCain's latest ad as "childish" today, the Atlantic reports. Breaking his silence about the campaign, Weaver said that the attack ad likening Barack Obama to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton “diminishes” and “reduces McCain...

New McCain Ad Says Obama Like Britney, Paris

He's a celebrity but unqualified to lead, it says

(Newser) - A new ad from the McCain campaign deems Obama the “biggest celebrity in the world” while flashing images of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, Time reports. While mocking his rock-star status with other images from his trip to Europe, it asks, "But is he ready to lead?" The...

Flailing Attacks Hurt McCain More Than Intended Target

Republican becoming the example of what voters 'want change from'

(Newser) - Attacking Barack Obama relentlessly and sloppily, John McCain has made himself an example of what voters “want change from,” John Dickerson writes in Slate. A good negative attack can be effective, but Mac is doing it “too much and indiscriminately”—making himself so untrustworthy the smart...

McCain Jab on War Most 'Scurrilous' in Memory: Klein

Time 's Klein can't believe he said Obama would rather lose war than election

(Newser) - John McCain’s latest jab at Barack Obama—“It seems to me that Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign”–stuns Joe Klein, who writes in Time that the Republican’s Iraq claim is the most “scurrilous statement by a major...

Bush and McCain: A Rocky Road, With Switchbacks
Bush and McCain: A Rocky Road, With Switchbacks
ANALYSIS
Jul 17, 2008 12:40 PM CDT

Bush and McCain: A Rocky Road, With Switchbacks

The two men have hated, helped each other

(Newser) - When George Bush denied involvement in infamous smears that ended John McCain's 2000 presidential bid, the feisty senator barked, “Don’t give me that shit. And take your hands off me.” But just 4 years later he gave the somber president a pre-debate pep talk: “You’re...

Webb Joins Clark Brouhaha; McCain Camp Strikes Back

More words over politicizing military service

(Newser) - James Webb said yesterday that John McCain should “calm down” regarding the politicizing of his military service, prompting an angry response today. McCain's campaign alleged a “coordinated attack on John McCain’s credentials.” But no Democrat—including Wesley Clark—has “demeaned” McCain’s service, Greg Sargent...

Obama Rejects Clark's Remark About McCain

In patriotism speech, Dem says no to devaluing service

(Newser) - Barack Obama today rejected surrogate Wesley Clark’s suggestion that being shot down in Vietnam didn’t qualify John McCain for the presidency, the LA Times reports. A rep said Obama “honors and respects” McCain’s service. In a speech in Independence, Mo., Obama said: “Patriotism is supporting...

McCain's War Record Now Fair Game
McCain's War Record Now
Fair Game
Jun 30, 2008 12:10 PM CDT

McCain's War Record Now Fair Game

Pro-Obama retired general Clark turns up volume on whispers

(Newser) - Wesley Clark's answer to a question on Face the Nation yesterday has exposed a simmering campaign issue, Politico reports: whether John McCain’s Vietnam ordeal translates to relevant experience for the presidency. "I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be...

Salty Senate Candidates Heating Up Alaska
Salty Senate Candidates Heating Up Alaska
ANALYSIS
Jun 19, 2008 4:18 PM CDT

Salty Senate Candidates Heating Up Alaska

GOP incumbent Ted Stevens has a rough-and-tumble challenge in Mark Begich

(Newser) - A sweltering Senate contest looks likely to warm up Alaska come November, Katherine Rizzo writes in the Wall Street Journal, as “cantankerous bully” and 40-year incumbent Ted Stevens faces the mayor of Anchorage in what’s already a mudfest. Democrat Mark Begich has reminded voters of Stevens’ convict friends...

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