Republican Presidential candidates Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Arizona Sen. John McCain have begun to attack each other politically and personally with television advertisements despite a recent promise to refrain from negative campaigning.
The candidates agreed in a recent Michigan debate to run only positive advertisements. But for the upcoming Michigan and South Carolina primaries, both candidates have begun to accuse their opponent of misrepresenting their views on issues such as Social Security, the tax cut and the national debt. McCain's ads also compare Bush to President Bill Clinton.
Bush's "ads twist the truth like Clinton," McCain states in one of the television ads. Both the Bush and McCain camps blame each other for casting the first stone and breaking the promise to adhere to positive campaigning.
"The Bush folks decided that they didn't want to honor that pledge," said Peter DeMarco, deputy national communication director of the McCain campaign. "They started running ads that were a gross misrepresentation of McCain's vision and agenda."
But the Bush camp insists McCain was the first to break the promise made at the Michigan debate.
"Chairman McCain chose to run negative ads in New Hampshire, Michigan and South Carolina," said Scott McClellan, spokesman for the Bush campaign. "Governor Bush was on the receiving end of the attacks."
Political experts agree the new campaigning methods are a direct result of the shifts in polls, making the race for the Republican nomination much closer.
"The election got close," said Larry J. Sabato, government and foreign affairs professor. "Negative campaigning increases as an election gets close."
Experts also believe this type of negative campaigning is not new to political races.
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The results of the new campaign techniques soon will be apparent in the upcoming South Carolina and Michigan primaries. The campaigns are not expected to hurt the Republicans' chances in this fall's general election, Sabato said. The ads are running in South Carolina, Michigan and Virginia.
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