Hotline asked several political consultants what they think about negative ads. The consultants say negative ads have been given a bad rap by the media.
McLaughlin & Assoc. CEO/partner John McLaughlin: "Having a good, honest issue debate with real differences is good. Being labeled by the media as a negative campaigner is bad - especially when it seems that's all the mainstream media covers."
Public Opinion Strategies' Glen Bolger: "Voters should know if the Democrat is an ethical sleazeball. Not all negative campaigning works or is appropriate, but the biannual handwringing by the press over negative campaigns is tiresome. Deal with it. It has to be factual to work."
I'm guessing the consultants don't agree with Newt Gingrich, who criticized the "consultant culture" of the GOP while speaking at the National Review Institute's Conservative Summit last weekend in DC:
Always talk personally first, historically second, and politically last. This is the number one problem with the consultant class. They get up every morning and read Hotline, then they go to Drudge, then they talk politics all day. And then because they have no idea what the average American thinks or does they try to write a clever attack commercial because they haven't got anything postive to say. That is fundamentally wrong.
Consultants do what they do because it's what they do for a living. It isn't necessarily the best for the Republican Party long term.
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