killer buffalo

Today Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin presented her second speech in as many days on the topic of opponent Barack Obama’s political involvement with past leader of radical group Weather Underground, William Ayers, whose friendship with Obama has been repeatedly punched by the McCain campaign. The McCain-backing crowd responded to Palin’s words with boos and shouting alike: they wanted more.

But this has not been the response from the general public. The popular wisdom—that negative campaigning has a positive effect on the perceived candidacy of the perpetrator—has been contradicted by past and present pollsters. Likewise, Barack Obama’s recent climb in the polls has been widely linked with the fact that his campaign has been running a lower percentage of attack ads.

In truth, the public’s good response has probably been the result of an Obama campaign that makes its attacks careful and with strategy. Although incredibly dated, my case in point is knockout campaign advertisement “Daisy” produced by then-presidential candidate Lyndon Johnson. The textbook attack ad—at that time a public relations gamble—paid off handsomely for the Johnson campaign; it has since been credited for his winning the 1964 presidential election.

And how? The advertisement managed its finality with a human sympathy and a strategic coherence. Moreover the Johnson campaign integrated images of mushroom clouds with those of opponent Barry Goldwater, where he misguidedly stated that nuclear bombing Vietnam was “a possibility.” From then on, these things were connected.

Put this into prospect: the political importance of capitalizing on the uncertainty and fear of a nuclear war in 1964 is by no means the equivalent of the albeit small marketing pot of gold which the Obama campaign has run upon. Yet it is of the same concept. Finding a video of John McCain admitting he funded the people who are suspected to have started the financial crisis might instead be analogous. But if it were found, the campaign must use it carefully.

Here are the attributes that make political advertisements, including “Daisy,” effective and not met with reproach: a juicy and controversial topic, a somewhat truthful piece of information about the opponent—the more misleading the more skilled the director must be—and a non-generic support tagline at the end.

In a strategic sense, this has almost everything to do with the 2008 campaign. Obama’s lead has resulted not only from the positive reception to his policies, but also from a gag reflex to McCain’s broken-record campaigning.

I am not discrediting McCain for the negativity of his marketing alone. I am discrediting him for his organization’s incompetence in adhering to the recipe for successful campaigning. What has worked in the past would work at the present and into the future, if he let it. Obama’s campaign has proved this.

Pacer521 is the thirteen year old political blogger and author of Culture Decoded: the Blog At The End of the Universe. His writing has been syndicated around the web and by newspapers including Boston Globe.

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