Is it me, or are these smear ads pathetic?

[Arkana]

I saw some of the Bush campaign's smear ads, and to be quite honest, I think they're rather pathetic and far reaching.

"Kerry wants to raise taxes by $900 billion"
This was my favorite one. It's truly a sign that they were desperate, and a clear indicator of how pathetic the smear pros are.

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Yes but repeat a lie often enough

which they have the money to do

[LynzM]

2. The problem is

That most people won't bother to do the research to learn what's really behind that (revoking the tax cuts for the upper upper class) and they will take the ad at face value. There is no mention of lowering middle class taxes.

It's the same way that the cutting intelligence funding ad works. Scare them with the 1.5 Billion Dollar number, and don't mention that that's what they have in surplus, or that it's 1% of their budget. Most people will gawk at that figure and not question why it was done, or how.

[specter]

3. Well

even if he did raise them that much, it still wouldnt pay for the debt *Bush has given us, our children and grand children.

[Kimber Scott]

4. I like the part that says Kerry wanted to wait to go to war

until the UN approved! Duh! Seems like that would have been a good idea to me and about 50% of my fellow Americans. Who's he preaching to, his choir? Seems like a waste of money to do that.

[Demonaut]

8. no shit, he's only getting the point across that the war was a mistake

he has nothing to run on

[burrowowl]

5. It seems pathetic but

how does it seem to TV watching murikans?
I try to do the exercise and am having difficulty.
I was living in France during the Ray-gun years and noone there could fathom why Americans voted for him.
One could classify them under ad hominum type arguments colored by modern ad techniques, but the acting is so damn bad ... are soap operas to blame?
It is beyond my ken why they are paying big bucks for these ads, but some focus groups must be telling them it is the right direction.
We are not speaking of the millions against the Irak war that Bu$h said was a focus group.
BTW, good for the Spanish focus groups! The voted Aznar's a$$ out.

[Undercover Agent]

6. I don't even listen to them.

They're all just a waste of money.

[struggle4progress]

7. Pathetic smears for inattentive viewers

I remember a wingnut R ad that essentially consisted of the charge, ominously intoned, that the D opponent owned some stock.