War Is Waged With Ads

There are a total of 14 states now that are being subjected to smear campaigning, fear campaigning, and hopelessly optimistic views. In a presidential race, you always are made to think a candidate is "the real thing". A group of musicians have come together for a "Vote for Change" tour. Kerry supporters genuinely believe that help is on the way. There are fear and smear campaigning techniques that Bush has been accused of using. This is where you scare the voter into thinking your opponent will wreak havoc on the nation if elected. While ads are effective, they do tend to irk the average American.

Most of the current ads are running in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. However, 10 other states -- Colorado, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, Wisconsin -- also are seeing heavy advertising. Since their party conventions, Kerry and the DNC, including the party's independent advertising operation, have spent about $80 million on advertising compared with about $70 million for Bush and the RNC.

Two campaign ads to highlight: Ad for Bush by the November Fund, a group of Republican insiders partly funded by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that will be attacking Edwards as a trial lawyer---and---an ad for Kerry by Rob Reiner telling Americans that four years ago we made a mistake.