McCain Looking To Change Discussion

With the economy in crisis and the country at war most Americans would expect an election focusing on the significant problems facing our country. However with the polls showing McCain falling farther and farther behind his campaign has decided to change tactics, and attack Obama and his character personally. While this may be a strategy that has worked in the past, it is a gamble considering the magnitude of issues facing America today. Below is an article discussing this change in strategy that the American public is beginning to see from the McCain camp. Sarah Palin has already started to get more critical in her appearances claiming that Obama associates with terrorists.

With McCain resorting to this negative divisive politics that take the focus away from the issues he is furthering the message of Obama that we need a change in Washington. Bush won the presidential election twice through negative campaigning, swift-boat attacks, and what is now being called "Rovian" style politics. In 2000 this style of campaigning ended the hopes of John McCain in the primary. McCain vowed to run a positive campaign, but he knows first hand that Americans respond to negative ads. A vote for McCain is not just a vote for four more years of the same, it is a vote that validates this style of negative politics. Americans deserve better, we deserve a positive discussion about the issues so come November we can make the right decision. Obama told an audience in Asheville what these attacks meant, "That’s what you do when you’re out of touch, out of ideas, and running out of time."

Seth Lovell

below is an article discussing McCain's change in strategy. In the article Tucker Bounds is mentioned, if you don't remember him look through the archives and you will find an article concerning his discussion with CNN correspondant Campbell Brown. The article and video clip give a good representation of what type of an individual Tucker Bounds is.

Obama Warns Against McCain Smear

This article first appeared in the Washington Post on October 5, 2008. Written by Perry Bacon Jr.

Sen. Barack Obama said today that, while his rival John McCain seeks to "distract you with smears" and "Swift Boat-style attacks" in the last weeks of the campaign, he would keep focused on economic issues and what he described as McCain's shortcomings. "Senator McCain's campaign has announced that they plan to turn the page on the discussion about our economy and spend the final weeks of this campaign launching Swift Boat-style attacks on me," Obama told a crowd of thousands on the football field of Asheville High School. "Senator McCain and his operatives are gambling that he can distract you with smears rather than talk to you about substance. ... I want you to know that I'm going to keep on talking about issues that matter." The Democratic nominee was reacting to reports of McCain's strategy telegraphed by his aides, as well as remarks Friday from Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. The Republican vice presidential nominee accused Obama of "palling around with terrorists," a reference to his association with William Ayers, who has confessed to domestic bombings as a member of the Vietnam-era Weather Underground. Ayers and Obama are not close and have not spoken in recent years, but they once served together on a nonprofit board that distributed educational grants in Chicago. Ayers hosted a gathering for Obama when he was running for the state Senate in Illinois a decade ago. Obama did not refer specifically to Palin's remarks, nor did he detail exactly what the "smears" against him by McCain would be. Tucker Bounds, a McCain spokesman, defended his campaign's strategy. "Americans need to ask themselves if they've ever befriended an unrepentant terrorist or had a convicted felon help them buy their house, because those aren't smears. Those are true facts about Barack Obama," Bounds said, alluding to Ayers and Antoin Rezko, a real estate developer who was once a close ally of Obama and who bought property from the Illinois senator. Rezko was convicted earlier this year of several counts of bribery and other charges.