Negative campaigning is guaranteeing success for candidates
Feb 1, 2012, 9:24 PM | Updated: Jun 4, 2012, 11:54 pm
Is this any way to pick a President?
By most estimates Mitt Romney out spent Newt Gingrich in
Florida 6 to 1… with 92% of the ads being negative in
nature!
Last week in S. Carolina, Romney learned the lesson that
nice guys finish last as Newt blasted the voters there
with negative ads, won the state and gained the “momentum”
(at least as awarded to the daily or weekly winner on
cable news).
The message was loud and clear, voters increasingly are
casting a ballot AGAINST a candidate they think poorly of
and less and less FOR a candidate they admire or respect.
So after S. Carolina, the gloves came off and Romney
showed the rest of the field just how many negative ads he
was prepared to run in Florida… and won by a landslide. I
wish there was another explanation for this quick turn of
fortune for both candidates, but the proximity of South
Carolina, both on the calendar and geographically proves
once and for all that negative campaigning is the ONLY
guarantee in American politics… and that guarantee is
success.
Know when they’ll stop running negative ads?
When you stop reacting to them. I’ll hold my breath.