Saturday, July 12, 2008

Why negative attacks against Obama are risky

Among many pundits and street level supporters alike, there are those who believe that conservatives will subject Barack Obama to a massive assault of negative ads similar to the "swiftboating" campaign used against John Kerry.

However, there are some indications out there that Obama's supporters may not be that certain about the effectiveness of swiftboat attacks against the Illinois senator. Already, there have been at least several widespread anti-Obama 'whisper campaigns' over the internet, and yet Obama is still leading in the most swing states according to the polls.

In 2004, we did not have the social networking sites and YouTube as we do today. These networks allow politicos to test what will or will not work against a candidate, and what might be worth spending TV ad money on. In fact, these internet networks alone can often sink a candidate as we saw during the congressional races of 2006.

Another thing about Obama is that he does not let negative attacks shape his own campaign. Kerry, while often refusing to respond directly to the swiftboaters, began appearing frequently with his old swift boat crew and with supporting military flag officers in apparent reaction to the attacks. These supporters acted as Kerry's surrogates and soon the bickering between them and the swiftboaters began to dominate news cycles.

Obama's ability to keep the focus on change in Washington makes it difficult for his opponents to come up with a workable negative attack strategy.

Swiftboating attacks will tend to erode Obama's support among conservative members of his own party. Therefore, it's important that the keeps his progressive base of supporters strongly behind him.


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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The biggest thing that Obama will have to do is try to convince the middle of the roaders or moderates that he is the most qualified candidate, which he isn't. Not that I like McCain any better but no one can exactly tell us what Sen. Obama has done in his very short Senatorial career. He hasn't even finished a single term in the Senate yet.

I can't even believe that he is the most qualified Democrat much less candidate for POTUS.

Slowly but surely people will eventually see him as nothing more than an empty suit.

Anonymous said...

How can Obama run as President when one of the qualifications is that the person's parents must be American Citizens.

what did he mark down as race on his form for filing for
president of the United States, or could he be charged with falsifying a Federal Leagl Form

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