[NJGOAT]

They all run negative ads, but I definitely saw a switch in McCain advertising the past few weeks to straight attack ads. You have to also take it in the context that advertising is regionalized. The ads we see here are not the ads that are seen everywhere else. McCain is behind Obama in Philadelphia, but in front of him in the suburbs. McCain's people believe that they have a chance to win in PA and NJ but are behind in the polls, hence all the McCain ads. It's politics 101, the smear ads do actually work. A positive message about a candidate will tend to be tuned out, but a negative ad captures people attention and they tend to retain the information longer. "Our generation" may be a little different in the way they view it, but the negative ads work for the majority of the voting population. That last part is the key. The ads are not intended to target everyone, they are intended to target the demographic that actually votes. I hate the ads too and get sick of seeing them, but they wouldn't be spending millions of dollars for them if they didn't think they worked.

As for the candidate choices this time, I am planning on voting for McCain, because I believe he is the better choice right now. Obama has a bit of a Kennedy feel about him, which I think the country needs, but not in our current crises. I'll take 4 years of McCain followed by Obama. The two parties have become so dilluted by special interests that they hardly have any identity anymore. You are essentially picking which set of lobbyists you prefer.