McCain Campaign Ads Now Going Almost All Negative

Those who, in 2000, felt Sen. John McCain was a different kind of candidate and who believed his promise to run an honorable campaign have to read this news with a sense of grief over what might have been:

The McCain campaign has now shifted virtually 100 percent of his national ad spending into negative ads attacking Obama, a detailed breakdown of his ad buys reveals.

By contrast, the Obama campaign is devoting less than half of his spending on ads attacking McCain. More than half of its spending is going to a spot that doesn’t once mention his foe.

I asked Evan Tracey — who tracks national ad spending for the Campaign Media Analysis Group — to detail the amounts each campaign is spending on specific different spots. The idea was to gauge the precise degree of the McCain campaign’s shift into negative mode amid his slide in the polls, and determine whether the Obama camp was following suit.

The results were striking, and suggest a sharper turn into negative campaigning as time runs low. For one thing, Tracey says, Obama is now outspending McCain by nearly two to one on the air — Obama is spending $2.4 million per week, and McCain is spending $1.3 million weekly. But on to the breakdowns.

Click on the link to read them..

It’s pretty clear what the American public is going to experience the next few weeks. The danger for McCain is that if he comes to office having run a mostly-negative campaign he will not have a “safety net” to fall back on if he runs into trouble in office. The U.S. has already seen the perils of a President who, rightfully or wrongfully, is perceived by many as a President of the base, by the base and for the base. But news of the extent of negative advertising means the cherished 2000 McCain political brand most assuredly ain’t what it used to be…