Obama Campaign Overwhelming Ayers Swift-Boat Spot With More Response Ads
Okay, this is interesting: The Obama campaign is now running ads responding to the Swift-Boating Obama-Ayers spot at a significantly faster pace than the original spot itself is running.
It's yet another sign that the Obama campaign is dead serious about sinking real resources into real media buys responding to such attacks, thus using rebuttal ads to saturate the local markets where the attack spots are running.
On August 26th -- the last date for which info is available -- the American Issues Project, the group behind the spot tying Obama to the former Weatherman, ran the ad 304 times in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Virginia.
On that same day, the Obama campaign aired its response ad some 550 times -- nearly twice as many times -- in those same four states.
According to Evan Tracey, who tracks national ad buys for the Campaign Media Analysis Group and supplied us with these numbers, this shows that the Obama campaign's response is overtaking the ad itself in frequency.
"If current trends continue, Obama will be drowning out those ads," Tracey says.
The numbers tell the story. AIP has run the Ayers spot a total of 730 times overall as of the end of the 26th. Obama started running his response ad later, but it has already run nearly as many times overall -- 643. And on the 26th, Obama's ad ran significantly more times -- indicating that he's now running his response at a higher pace, Tracey says.
"Obama won't be outgunned. That's one of the advantages of having money," Tracey concludes. "The Obama campaign is not afraid to deviate from its national message to put out these local fires."
Good to hear.
The line in the ad that says something like "Why is John McCain obsessed with the 60s?" or something like that (if this is the ad I'm thinking of) will start to sink in, with all this repetition.
"Obsessed with the 60s" and "keeps talking about his POW experience" are not two themes you want rattling around in voters' brains, if you ask me.
August 28, 2008 5:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
I emphatically agree. If Obama can effectively frame this race as the past vs. the future, he'll do very well on election day.
August 28, 2008 5:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
It helps that that message has really been tackled at the convention.
August 28, 2008 5:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree, and they are doing a great job.
http://sensico.wordpress.com
August 28, 2008 6:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well done.
August 28, 2008 5:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
"The Obama campaign is not afraid to deviate from its national message to put out these local fires."
I've read elsewhere that this is the Obama plan. Keep the issue local, bombard at the local level, and don't let it go viral(National). So far, it looks good; so far....
August 28, 2008 5:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yo, Greg:
The McCain team put out this web ad today, which seems to undercut the tv ad that McCain's running:
August 28, 2008 5:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes. This guys mean business.
Obama-Biden'08: Offensive you can believe in.
August 28, 2008 5:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
These guys. My bad.
August 28, 2008 5:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Of course it means he had to spend double to put out the fire. I guess it is a necessary evil though, because Obama has 2M donors to tap, whereas 527's have limited $$, usually a couple of Billionaires throwing some money around.
Old Money Billionaires hate publicity, which is why I think Obama camp should have outed the backer. However maybe they did through back channel means.
August 28, 2008 5:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Which is, of course, why it was necessary for Obama to forgo public financing.
Not that the media will give Obama any credit for it.
August 28, 2008 5:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
they also don't like pouring money down a rathole if there is no payback.
"Why is John McCain obsessed with the 60s?"
Because he is still a POW and he wants us all to join him there.
August 28, 2008 5:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
They are sticking to their plan. They are not going national. They are bombarding McCain locally. They are tying him to the 527. People will believe he is behind the ad. It must be driving McCain and some of the media batty.
August 28, 2008 5:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is great. From the day the Ayers ad dropped, I've been saying they'd need to spend dollar for dollar to neutralize it.
Nice to see that they not only thought matching the ad buys was a good idea, but went the extra step and out-spent the 527.
Pretty smart tactic. Kudos to Plouffe and Axelrod, the smartest guys in the campaign.
August 28, 2008 5:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
What I like is they haven't adopted a policy of denial. Instead the response ad advances one of their own themes. McCain is a man stuck in the past.
August 28, 2008 5:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
What you mean is that he IS the past.
August 28, 2008 5:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
[b]"The Obama campaign is not afraid[/b]
That is what I like to hear!
August 28, 2008 5:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Alright!!!!!
I love this campaign - I love it!
August 28, 2008 5:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Now that I think about it, this strategy accomplishes a couple of different objectives.
Besides putting out the fire that the Ayers ad may have started had it gone unchecked, it also serves notice to any GOP billionaire who thinks they can buy McCain a couple of points in the polls - if they come to run smear ads, they better bring acheckbook and be ready to spend large. I'm betting a lot of these guys aren't going to want to drop a couple of million if they know that Obama's gonna match them and turn their investment into a waste of money.
That's damned smart.
August 28, 2008 5:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
You know what I don't like about this? It almost gives some local podunk station an incentive to run the Ayers smear just to pick up some additional revenue from Obama's response. I know if I were an enterprising manager of a t.v. station in some local swing market who may have been uncomfortable airing such an ad at first, I would seriously consider running it after hearing this if only to invite Obama's response revenue.
I guess it's a necessary evil, but it's something to watch out for as this thing goes on.
August 28, 2008 5:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey everyone. Enjoy tonight! It's great day to be a democrat!
August 28, 2008 6:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
And do yourselves a favor and watch PBS or C-Span. That way the infotainment talking heads can't rain on the parade...
August 28, 2008 6:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good advice.
I'll watch it on C-Span.
August 28, 2008 6:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well played. Fire back quickly, ask questions later.
http://pufferfish.typepad.com/
August 28, 2008 6:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm so glad I sent Obama another $250 the other night.
So so glad! This response ad is great.
August 28, 2008 6:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Agreed. You reminded me to send in a donation before the end of the month. :)
August 28, 2008 6:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
They're sending out Obama-Biden 1st edition car magnets for any contributions $15+.
August 28, 2008 7:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
William Ayers is the moral equivalent of a nazi war criminal. The difference being that he doesn't have to stay in hiding and is able to continue to espouse his version nazism. Like many 60's leftist thugs, he has been able to find an influential position in the education establishment (the majority, of course, are in the environmentalist industry). This explains a lot about American education today. The fact that liberals don't care that Obama is close to the moral equivalent of nazi war criminals explains a lot about them and him. If they didn’t know that it was wrong, they would not object to the facts being known.
August 28, 2008 9:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
finally caught both of the ads this evening here in michigan. best part: they played back to back!
'how much do you know about barack obama? blahblahblah about ancient fucking history... be afraid of dangerous hippie radicals' then: 'why is john mccain talking about the sixties???' ha.
August 28, 2008 9:40 PM | Reply | Permalink