New ads from both sides

While watching CNN this morning before class I noticed that the names Charles Keating and Bill Ayers have come up a lot. Perhaps this caught my attention because of the research I did as an undergraduate on the Weather Underground Organization, but it's interesting to me that each side is going to so much effort to bring up these names. Obama has posted a 13 minute long "documentary" on the McCain/Keating scandal from the early 90s. If you haven't seen it, here is the link:

http://www.keatingeconomics.com/

Having little prior knowledge of this scandal (since i was 5 years old when it happened...) I found the documentary to be a little overwhelming. For having put so much effort into a documentary like this, I would think they would want to be able to reach as many people as possible, but I did not feel like it was very effective, with one exception: the visuals. Seeing the images of Keating in handcuffs and then pictures of McCain vacationing with him was a very strong message. Otherwise I feel like they did what Luntz talked about in "Words that Work," they used great SAT words and jargon, but I don't think that was the best way to reach the general American public and persuade them that this was a serious offense.

I also checked out the newest ad from the McCain camp, called "Hypo". Here is the link for anyone who hasn't seen it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIlUaKIB07E

The most interesting thing to me was the beginning shot of the Missouri news cast. McCain offered a link to the full newscast, and here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2p4kohUP3I

This seems odd to me. Should law enforcement be publicly offering support to one candidate over another? Perhaps it is just me, but it seems as though Sheriffs, Chiefs of Police, and others in prominent authoritative positions in states (especially more borderline states like Missouri) should not be allowed to publicly practice partisanship. Granted, the only information I have on this is from that YouTube clip of the newscast, but it struck me as odd that this was occurring without any mention of support for the McCain side. Do the candidates consider these law enforcement officials Navigators (a la Applebee's America)?

The Question of Clinton Supporters

A lot of the discussion surrounding the Palin pick is whether or not she will be able to pick up Clinton supporters (also seems to be the only real reason for McCain to have selected her). Many think that there will be at least a small percentage of people who will jump on the bandwagon for the sole reason of Palin being a woman; however, others have given the voters a little more credit than that. Palin is certainly no substitute for Clinton if voters truly believed in what Clinton stood for on the issues.

A poll was conducted the two days following the Palin announcement that should give us some faith in the voters. Gallup seems to breeze over the fact that this poll was conducted post VP announcement and focuses more on the impact of the convention. However, I believe the results should still be comforting to Obama supporters. After the convention and the announcement of Palin, the percentage of Clinton supporters who said they were certain to vote for McCain went down by 4 percent and the number of Clinton supporters who said they were certain to vote for Obama went up by 18 percent.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/109957/Obama-Gains-Among-Former-Clinton-Supporters.aspx

I think this shows that when people really examine their beliefs, they realize that voting to make a statement is a mistake when it will come back to haunt them in the form of policy those voters do not support.