May 18 2008

The Republican Party seems to assume that Barack Obama will be the Democratic candidate in the 2008 American Presidential Race. They are no longer spending money on advertisements against Hillary Clinton, instead stepping up their attacks on Obama. They're even going after his wife Michelle who has apparently committed the utimate American sin of not being patriotic enough.  Even some hardened political pundits are aghast at the ads against Michelle, since the unspoken rule has been that members of a candidate's family are off limits, unless they do something illegal.  One can imagine the screams from the Republicans if the Democrats had slung mud at Laura Bush or at Nancy Reagan while their husbands were running for office.

The first Republican ads emphasized Obama's friendship with the controversial Reverend Wright or labeled Obama as elitist because of his remark about some voters being "bitter". Since then, the ante has been upped by suggestions that Obama is an appeaser of terrorists and that he secretly wants to confiscate all guns. So far, there have been no accusations that Barack is a kitten eating pedophile nor any cartoonish slurs about watermelon eating black folks, but don't rule them out.

There's no doubt that nasty attack ads can work very well. The "swift boating" of John Kerry during the 2004 election is a prime example. Such tactics can also backfire.  During 1993, there was a federal election race in Canada between the incumbent Conservative Government and the opposition Liberal Party. The Conservatives began running television advertisements that mocked a facial deformity of the Liberal Leader Jean Chretien who had suffered a rare illness as a child. Chretien responded with a speech about how he accepted the limitations that God had given to him, but he was trying to do his best to overcome them. Canadian voters were so horrified by this new low in personal attacks that even staunch Conservatives revolted and left the Party.  The Conservatives not only lost the election, the number of seats they held in Parliament dropped from 190 to 2.  Of course, the United States is another country.

I have two questions for any Americans reading this post. First, could attack ads by the Republicans against Obama blow back on them if they cross the line?  Second, where is the line that cannot be crossed?  I'm really interested in your opinions.

George

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