Going Positively Negative on the Campaign Trail

As I mentioned last month in my post "Campaign Reform Dies a Final Death", the McCain/Palin team had launched a series of negative ads about Barack Obama. Over the last few weeks, they had backed off and run more pro-McCain ads. Well, from here on out, expect an even greater focus on negative ads. They are desperate at this point and regardless of McCain's desire to rise above partisan attack politics, if he has any desire to win, there is only one option that has a chance of working.

Sarah Palin has already been proclaiming that Obama associates with terrorists referring to his association in recent years to William Ayers who 30-40 years ago was a leader of the violent radical left organization Weatherman. You can read more about William Ayers for background info, but as for a more recent picture of him, know that Ayers is currently a Distinguished Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Education. He has edited and written many articles and books on topics such as education theory, policy and practice. He has also appeared on many panels and symposia and served on the board of directors for the Chicago Annenberg Challenge where Barack Obama was Board President. Decide for yourself how much this effects your opinion of Obama. It is a last gasp effort for McCain.

I am actually interested in seeing new polls for North and South Dakota. They had somewhat unexpectedly become battleground states until Sarah Palin was named McCain's VP mate at which points, polls showed a big McCain lead in both states. But there have not been any polls since the 3rd week of September. Obama's lead in national polls has increased significantly since then, so these states could be back in play. Although both states have the minimum 3 electoral votes, if they are close and McCain has to spend any time there, it will make an already difficult task even more challenging.