If Negative Works

Oh, how I yearn for a clean, civil, stick-to-the-issues campaign. I hear over and over that I’m not alone, that most people really don’t like negative campaigns and attack ads. But history and reality proves otherwise. Vitriol works. So with that distressing realization, I agree with New York Times columnist Paul Krugman who says in his Aug. 25, 2008, column, ”Accentuate the Negative,” that since ‘there are no limits to the form G.O.P. character attacks can take’, Obama needs to start fighting back — seriously.

I’m just hoping the Obama-Biden folks bring something more advanced and sophisticated to the fight than the blunderbuss McCain and Co. has been shooting off to impugn Obama’s religion (this from his fellow Christians), biography (didn’t he do exactly what those critics say disadvantaged people should do — pulled himself up by his bootstraps, most impressively), elitism (he is far down the scale from McCain in terms of privilege, family legacy, wealth, number and value of homes and in every other measure except scholarship and intellectual accomplishment), judgment and foreign policy (advocated positions on both Iraq and Afghanistan which the current administration is now being forced to take)

 

 

 

Tags: Afghanistan, attack ads, bootstraps, character attacks, Christian, Christians, elite, fight back, Iraq, negative campaigns, Paul Krugman, privilege