Who do they think McCain is? I never thought he had that much pull with the American public.
The ad is getting heard and it is having impact. So far the SBVT have been more effective than anything the Bush campaign has tried.
I don't think a vague knowledge of the ad has the same impact of actually seeing it. The Swifties need to get the ad itself to voters. (And yes, I have sent a contribution)
With these kind of numbers, expect the Kerry campaign to go nuclear real soon. The attacks against the SBVT will be stepped up, big time.
>>despite Sen. McCains swift and very public repudiation of this ad and the lingering questions on the veracity of the charges, it still ends up being a net negative for Kerry <<
Maybe because the democrats are really, really, really, overrating what conservatives think about "John McCain-Feigold" and his opinion on anything!
All campaigns are dirty. This high road stuff is BS nonsense. You have to point out the faults and shortcomings of an opponent. People will gripe and complain about it sure. They will say we must talk about the "issues" from atop their high horse. But in the end, its politics as usual. Since when is exposing the facts about an opponent dirty anyways? The Swift Vets are bringing FACTS to light.
Bottom line, MOST of the people who said it might change their mind said it reflects poorly on Kerry.
If this race is as close as the pollsters say, Even a 2% switch of undecideds ruins Kerry's chances.
What is nice is that the "Christmas in Cambodia" issue does not depend on the Swifties, and hasn't really begun to play. There is no one for Kerry to smear, save perhaps for whomever transcribes the Congressional Record.
Even if people polled were to claim they were "disgusted" by the ad (expect to see some Dim polls proclaiming this very thing --soon), that wouldn't mean the ad wasn't having its desired effect.
People claim all the time to pollsters that they hate negative ads. Yet those very negative ads, generally, have very positive impact.
I hope we've got some pushpollers working on this. Example question:
Q. How would your opinion of Democrat John Kerry change if you knew the following information to be true:
1. John Kerry executed a wounded vietnamese teenage boy in 1968 by machinegunning him in the back
2. John Kerry faked the severity of his war injuries in order to get some medals for bravery.
3. John Kerry was a member of a radical organization that voted on assasinating a U.S. senator.
Your opionion would be:
a. More postitive
b. More negative
I agree the agency has a Republican bias. However, the pubbies have taken a powerful hands-off attitude to the commercial and the Swiftvets in general, strongly contrasting with the DemonRats passionate embrace of Michael Moore, et al. Thus, I conclude that the poll was objectively done to get an accurate result and see if the ad is really working.
I remember one of the tapes of a White House coffee where Clinton was very persuasively explaining to potential donors why they should give more money for ads. He used poll results showing the efficacy of the ads to persuade the donors to give money.
It's the same here. We need an accurate reading on the ad's impact to see if we should give more money to the Swiftvets. It looks like the ad's beginning to draw blood and we should give more money. Their website where we can give is www.swiftvets.com.