Do you think Obama knew that holding out on issuing attack ads would bring down poll numbers?

Just wondering whether you think they knew this would likely happen. McCain has been issuing these for weeks now with weak responses from all Dems. Obama's surrogates have also not been terribly effective.

I heard Obama has finally begun running attack ads in some states. And in the long haul, Obama's decision not to take public financing allows him to release a barrage of ads later on, after the conventions and closer to the election.

Do you think that the McCain attack ads have done long term damage? Or are the recent numbers a temporary dip? Have the ads been effective? Has Obama been swift boated? Is it happening now?

...for fear of looking "negative".


That tells me they are playing prevent defense and trying to run this out. That won't work. We've seen it before.

unless being too popular and attracting large amount of people to want to hear you speak about politics is really a bad thing in real life.

I think that the paranoia is what is starting to get on my nerves.
Losta defeatists hanging out.

So Obama was on vacation, and now he's back.

The majority of folks are watching the Olympics and don't really give a shit just yet.

I realize that we lost in 2004......But Barack Obama is not John Kerry. period. John Kerry didn't campaign in every state prior to the primaries being finally finished. Kerry wasn't raising 50+ million per month, let alone 8 millions a night. Kerry wasn't registering new voters in record numbers in all 50 states. Ohio is no longer administered by a Republican asshole GOP Sec. of State. People are sick of wars, and the economy smells like shit. Barack is not running against an incumbent.

So no....Barack Obama is not being swiftboated.

I'm going to have to come off these boards....not because of Obama and the campaign and anything that they are doing, but because when attitude is half of everything, I don't feel like others dragging me down with them.

nt

At this point, counting up your posts and seeing what you have posted, I'd count you in that number.

The polls are bullshit propaganda pushed by the corporate media.
and you are pushing those polls...which in my book makes you no better than them.

Barack Obama is not John Kerry.....and has not operated in anyway like John Kerry did.

Certainly, the media is fighting the same fight in the same way,
but it has just begun......hence your pronouncements are not based on
anything Obama has done, but are based on 2004.

In other words, you are part of the problem my friend.

But at this point, I've got my eyes on you.

1) I think BO is a MUCH better candidate than Kerry, more appeal and power, and tougher ...
2) I think comparisons to the Kerry campaign are legit, not in that BO has done anything wrong, but it just highlights the POWER of the media, and the pattern - the right wing throws out crape, the media "pundits" it endlessly thereby legitimizing it, and helps to paint the D as unpatriotic and some other ways a pukebag ...
3) I think BO was cornered until now ... People keep saying he has "LET" the Rs and media define him ... He can't do JACK about what the media is going ... People say he should have gone after McCain earlier ... I don't think he could have - the media would have KILLED him for going negative on McCain when he was ahead ...
4) IMO, McCain has gamed the campaign financing VERY successfully ... He will cash the 80 million dollar check and STILL fund raise for the RNC and other groups ... Fact is, this WELFARE, when it is all said and done, will probably put him on par with BO from a money standpoint AND the money he raises for the RNC and side groups will put even MORE over the top negative ad about BO on than his campaign has had under his flag ... AND, even better for him, BO is the one who took a beating for not taking it ...
5) This thing is going to be A LOT closer than people here have deluded themselves into believing it will be ...

I hold out hope that BO is going to make it work from an electoral vote standpoint, but right now I am not feeling real great about things ...

i think this will work well, avoid the stupid press circus but get the message out. he who laughs last laughs best.

They're normally run as a last-ditched effort at a game changer. The fact McCain ran them now shows he knew he needed to stay in this until the conventions, or ran a big chance of being blown out of the water from here until November.

His attacks worked in the sense they stalled Obama's numbers and kept him in striking distance. However, over a prolonged time, even if McCain continues to run the same type of attack, the effect will wear off and people won't care.

So McCain either has something else he's going to run with, or he's shown his cards earlier than expected. My guess is he's shown his cards and once this starts going, all those negative attack ads will be ignored and Obama's numbers won't be hurt in the long run.

No one can tell me that the women vote is going to mccain
No one can tell me that the young vote is going to mccain
No one can tell me that the 50 million who are uninsured are going to vote for mccain
No one can tell me that those who have lost their homes and jobs because of the policies of the last 8 years are going to vote for mccain

Screw the polls. Let me point out one KNOWN FACT

During the primaries, the Democrats had RECORD turnouts, the republicans were dismal at best

2008 will be a disaster for the republicans, as the Democrats win ALL three branches of government

Too many people have been hurt by the bush administration, and they know that mccain is an extension of that administration

they want to create perception. It's like when a republican writes a book. The GOP machine buys a ton of them to put it to the top of the best seller list. It's perception. Many of these polls that are sponsored by media outlets are doing the same thing. I.E. Zogby-CNN poll or Newsweek-Gallup poll. Come on people wake up.

in order to even up the poll numbers when nobody in America besides freaks like us are paying any attention to the race.

This isn't Kerry after the convention with the Swifties. Obama just started the downhill run towards the convention and the main months of the campaign season, he hauled in $52 million to McCain's $27 million, and the money McCain spent trashing Obama before an empty room is going to loom large in its absence come September.

I'm beginning to think about Obama's campaign brain-trust the way I think about Belichick on game day. They are assassins, they have field-generaled one of the most brilliant upset-campaigns in history, and they have yet to display cause for me to think anything other than they know what they're doing.

*knocks wood*

OK, bedtime.

To tell you the truth, his "new politics" don't do much for me. Not when he takes crap and doesn't dish any out.

He's beginning to start, but I think he only does it when he is getting into trouble, which worries me a lot.

I see waaay too many similarities right now between Kerry and Obama in terms of how the campgaign is handled. The Obama campaign needs to be defining McCain with less issue oriented ads, then trying to win the swing voters in late fall. The McCain camp is doing exactly what the Bush camp did in 2004 - define early and talk issues and independents in late fall. So far, we have weak responses from Obama that seem too late.

Why answer McCain's attacks when you can start your own attacks? Don't they see this? You don't win by letting the other guy change the dialogue.

Integrity my ASS!

But the only way anybody will hear it is if WE the blogosphere announce it. The MSM won't do it, and Obama has no clue what to do with that kind of stuff.

the wringing of hands.

You are listening to someone who suddently just showed up long enough to criticize the campaign.
Perhaps it is not the Obama campaign making the misteps...perhaps it is some of his supporters
underestimating him and who believe that they know what to do, when they actually don't....
and piling criticism on top of the lies that the GOP and the media minions tell.

That's why I write every day with my own talking points to the media...because I don't assume someone else is doing it, and I can simply afford to pass judgment from the confines of my chair in front of my computer.

What I do know is that there is no reason for me to believe that adding my voice in a negative manner aimed at our nominee in a public setting is really going to ever help us win.

we are learning on DU, and he is appalled!

And when I tell him things, its mostly new to him. Although he does watch Olbermann once in a while.

I used to be neutral to positive on McCain, so I know that this is the general predisposition of people who don't know any better. He duped me good.

I still wonder if Obama could have changed things and actually won towards the end. His strategy at the end was weak.

as a fellow Democrat.....although she damned near did that to herself.

In this case, I don't think that the same strategy will be utilized.

But I guess that you can keep on 2nd guessing till November.


Negativity was never anything I considered a virtue.

and so with that, I say good luck to you.

He needs to stop complimenting McCain and start kicking his lying ass ~ all the deference about McCain's military service comes off as an endorsement to many voters.

He should stop qualifying every attack against McCain with that bullshit about "honoring his service". Fuck that. Just tear right into him.

He DOES NOT Respect you, so don't give him respect back.

Obama and his team know what they are doing.

Just as Harry Truman noted.

You can tell by that cocky grin and cockier little wink after each verbal attack (makes me nauseous). How did he get to this point? I believe Obama's campaign stepped purposefully aside and allowed it to happen. Why? I trust they know what they're doing.

they would have had a long term strategy to deal with it. I also believe we have seen nothing yet.

dips and upticks and all.