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10 Most Vicious Presidential Campaign Attack Ads

The political attack is a good old fashioned American tradition. After all, it was Thomas Jefferson’s campaign that said then-President John Adams is a “blind, bald, crippled, toothless man” and “a hideous hermaphroditical character with neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.” Ouch. Talk about a low blow (especially considering Jefferson was Adams’ vice president), but it worked: Ultimately Jefferson was elected the third president of the United States.

Jefferson’s harsh words make today’s attack ads appear comparatively civil. However, that’s not to say the current presidential candidates have run squeaky clean campaigns. On the contrary, the mud has flown, and often it’s been based on misleading information or downright distortions of fact. We all say we hate such ads, but the curious thing is they work. Studies have consistently found them to be more impactful upon the electorate than positive ads. And, given that this is shaping up to be a very tight race, a strong attack ad may just determine who’s in charge of sportsmen’s rights for the next four years. Here are some of the most vicious and, perhaps not coincidentally, the most memorable presidential attack ads of 2012.

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Romney Causes Cancer


The Obama camp is attempting to distance itself from this ad produced by the left-wing group "Priorities America". In a serious stretching of the facts, the ad blames Romney for the death of a laid-off steel worker's wife from cancer. The Obama campaign denies involvement in the ad's production, but according to Yahoo! News, the steel worker did tell the Obama campaign his story during a May 14, 2012, conference call.

4 Responses
  • Unbelievable, the man’s poor wife died 6 years after Romney left Bain. She was actually working when the guy was laid off and had her own health coverage. Are people really buying this? If they aren’t and they know it’s a lie and they still vote for the liar what do they think they are getting? It’s like the woman who steals a man from his wife, marries him and then wonders why he is cheating on her.
    bowhunting for women

  • PosterChild

    Much of the ad is false, including its first claim. Referring to the 2009 stimulus law backed by President Obama and passed by the Democratic-controlled Congress, the ad asks where “all” the stimulus money went and then answers its own question by saying to special-interest groups and friends and backers of Mr. Obama. But of $763 billion in stimulus money used so far, the largest amount has been hundreds of billions of dollars for such things as a tax credit for working middle-income families, larger exemptions for families hit by the alternative minimum tax, public school funding and Medicaid grants. The ad accurately notes that a little over $500 million was for loan guarantees for Solyndra, a solar energy firm that collapsed last year. The company’s largest investor was a nonprofit antipoverty foundation whose major backer is an Obama fund-raiser. But another major Solyndra investor was a firm connected with donors to the Republican Party.

    The ad’s claim that stimulus money went to “electric cars from Finland” is false, according to the car’s manufacturer and the Energy Department. The struggling company, Fisker Automotive, received approval from Obama administration officials for $529 million in government loans under a George W. Bush-era program, not the stimulus. Most of that loan, intended for a plant in Delaware, has been suspended. The $193 million actually lent to Fisker was spent in the United States, not at its plant in Finland, according to Fisker and the Energy Department. Fisker’s investors include firms whose executives have donated to both parties. In the ad, Mr. Schumer complains that 79 percent of $2.1 billion in stimulus grants went to overseas companies, referring in part to wind turbines made in China. But this is one narrow slice of the overall stimulus. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/19/us/politics/romney-ad-contends-stimulus-money-went-overseas-or-to-donors.html

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