Public views at ground zero

That's ground zero of the presidential campaign this year, Ohio. More specifically, the center of Ohio, Columbus. Basically the NY Times reports that the ads have worked. Kerry is seen as a flip flopper, unless you watch his ads, and then he is a war hero. A little disturbing, however, was this:

Mr. Kerry faced similar criticism, though some of it was for advertisements run by others. "When they say all the jobs have gone to China because of Bush, I don't believe that," said Dee Borrows, 58, as she sat outside an Old Navy store. Ms. Borrows was referring to a spot from the Media Fund, a Democratic group running advertisements against Mr. Bush that is legally prohibited from coordinating with Mr. Kerry's campaign. The commercial showed a factory with Chinese characters on its side as an announcer said, "It's true George W. Bush has created more jobs; unfortunately they were created in places like China."

I realize that these 527's help even out the money spent, and allow the Kerry campaign to have negative ads without going negative himself. But if public perception is that these came from Kerry anyway, then there is a negative impact to be had. Most people aren't going to notice the lack of the "I'm John Kerry and I approve this ad," but instead fall under a perception that the Kerry campaign is willing to go just as negative as Bush.

In light of a study showing Kerry's favorability increased since the running of his minute long biographical ad, I would hate to see that gain lost be attack ads not approved by Kerry himself. And of course, it would be illegal to have Kerry coordinate 527 ads with his own campaign, so I guess once again we wait until November to discover the full impact of the ads.

Maybe I'm being to nervous. But Kerry wants to be a positive visionary for the future, and anything that goes against that vision, if viewed as his, could backfire and only serve to reinforce the attempts by the Bush campaign to peg him as a flip-flopper.