billroper | (Reply)

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Ah! If you took away from my original post the idea that there were more anti-Bush ads than anti-Kerry ads, that wasn't the message that I was trying to convey. It seems fairly clear that there are more negative ads originating from anti-Bush 527 groups than from anti-Kerry 527 groups, but that doesn't necessarily give the full picture of negative advertising during this campaign season, since the Bush and Kerry campaigns can pay for their own negative advertising if they need to.

The trick here is that Bush is having to pay for his own negative ads (mostly) which allows Kerry to -- as the CBS News editor quote suggests -- say that his campaign is positive, while still getting the benefits of negative advertising. (Much as Bush can receive benefits from the negative Swift Boat ads, while declaiming against all of the 527 activity on both sides.)

I saw a count on negative ads from one source a while back that said that the Bush campaign had run more negative ads than Kerry, but that omitted the ads that were run during the primary season when there were a variety of anti-Bush ads run to benefit the various Democratic candidates. Of course, that's the hazard of incumbency -- the opposition knows who to shoot at.