McCain and Obama Use Character Attacks
Attempts at Character Assassination Heat Up Campaigns
Oct 7, 2008
McCain and Obama initially said they would run positive campaigns, however many of the recent events have focused on attacking each others character, and past and proposed policies. Negative campaigning and personal attacks on political rivals are common and used by all candidates. It is just not presidential elections that go negative---it happens in closely contested congressional races feature attacks as well.
McCain and Obama Negatives Historical
Negative campaigns are nothing new in America. Some of the earliest contests were its meanest. Supporter of John Adams' bid for the presidency in 1796 called his opponent Thomas Jefferson cowardly, weak and a person who did not share America's values.
The 1828 election between John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson was one of the country's bitterest. Jackson's supporters called Adams, "the pimp", alleging Adams convinced a woman to have an affair with a Russian leader. Adam' team fired back, accusing Jackson's wife of being a prostitute. Adams supporters called Jackson a "jackass"---and used the illustration to make the point.
McCain and Obama Negative Appeals
The dynamics of the election presidential system drive candidates to appeal to the most aggressive voters according to Pietro Nivola, director the the Governance Studies Program at the Brookings Institute in Washington in a forum hosted by the League of Women Voters on November 28, 2007.
McCain apparently believes in the old rule that if you don't attack the front runner, then the front runner probably will remain the front runner.
Americans tend to see negative campaign ads as just that: negative. Pundits, journalists, voters, and scholars frequently complain that such ads undermine elections.
Voters Attitudes Toward Negative Attacks
In an article in America.gov, writer Michelle Austein quotes Drew Westen, a psychology professor at Emery University, who said that one reason that attacks work is that Americans want to feel secure, and candidates can show their strength is by being aggressive, especially when responding to another candidate.
Weston, author of the book, The Political Brain, which examines how politicians connect emotionally with voters, says that while campaign negative attacks can be effective, they must be used by a candidate in a way that associates the negative comments strictly with the opponent. Too much negativity can make a candidate seem like the "angry candidate never wins.
When asked in the polls, Americans say they do not like watching candidates speak negatively of others. Yet political scientists say evidence shows that negative campaigns work, which is why they are consistently used. There is no doubt that it often works.
McCain and Obama Negativity Positive Aspects
John G. Greer, a professor of political science, writing in In Defense of Negativity, a study of negative advertising in presidential campaigns from 1960 to 2004, asserts that the proliferating attack ads are far more likely to focus on salient political issues rather than politicians personal characteristics. He thinks this is an important and timely contribution to American political discourse.
McCain/Palin and Obama/Biden election campaigns will continue to heat up with more attacks on each other and their policies during the days leading up to the November 4, 2008 presidential election. Whether the attacks change any minds is yet to be seen.
Bibliography
Geer, John G. In Defense of Negativity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press 2006
