General Election Ad Spending Will Be Turned Up to 11

Right now, the volume of general election ads hardly registers. However, if you have ever turned on your car after you had previously been driving with the radio volume turned all the way up then you know what to expect -- a startling blast. With the primaries going on for so long, it would appear that when the general election ad wars start it may have a similar effect. Since the beginning of February, the Democrats' presidential primary has slogged along week by week and state by state with bursts of intense ad spending and massive media attention. While all this has been going on, the John McCain campaign has been trying to infuse itself into the debate whenever possible. Thus far, the ad spending related to the general election has been somewhat small and targeted. The question only time will answer is what markets will the massive ad dollars flow into. The McCain campaign has already started to quietly spend more than $1 million on ads in New Mexico, Oregon, Iowa, West Virginia and Ohio. His most recent ads promote his "leadership" on issues such as health care, mortgage relief and a gas tax holiday, while Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton argue and fight. From the political left, groups such as the Democratic National Committee, Friends of the Earth, Progressive Media USA, SEIU and MoveOn.org have begun to approach $3 million in spending on national cable spots as well as in a several key battleground states. If 2008 is a repeat of 2004, when pro-Kerry groups propelled the campaign to a more than $100 million ad-spending advantage over George Bush, then McCain will be heavily outgunned during the summer and fall.
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