Democrats are nervous. The polls are tight, and this presidential race is going to remain close through November. Sen. Barack Obama is feeling the heat. The ‘audacity of hope’ and the ‘change we can believe in’ are both quickly fading away.

Obama has shifted course, with negative campaigning and personal attacks in the forefront. But he is not the only one guilty of such political tactics. Both Obama and Sen. John McCain would be best served to get away from personal attacks and focusing solely on their visions for the United States.

‘Americans don’t mind slightly negative campaigning as long as it communicates the candidate’s specific policy differences,’ said Jonathan Hanson, a Syracuse University political science professor.

However, Obama is guilty of claiming to be above it all. From the beginning of his campaign, he pledged to stay away from negative politics. As Obama said earlier in the election, this sort of campaigning ‘is not the kind of tone that we should tolerate.’

The fact is, Obama is not above negative politics, not even close. With a mere five weeks until Election Day, it would be fair to say he is entrenched in a typical negative campaign.

Evidence of his negative operation is mounting. The Washington Post article released earlier this month called ‘Obama Aired More Negative Ads Last Week’ analyzed the nature of both candidates’ campaign ads.

The study found that in the week after the Republican National Convention, 77 percent of Obama’s commercials were negative, while only 56 percent of McCain’s were negative.

Obama’s attacks on his Republican opposition have not been issue-oriented. His personal jabs at McCain are distracting the American public from the real problems with this country.

The Democrat’s campaign was quick to mock McCain for owning seven houses and 13 cars. These attacks make for good talking points, but they don’t exactly address issues that concern the average voter.

Even Vice President candidate Sen. Joe Biden has gone as far as to say that if Palin is elected with McCain, ‘it will be a backward step for women.’ After everything women have worked for to gain equal treatment in this country, it is hard to believe that Palin’s election would be a step back.

‘Recently, the attacks on Sarah Palin have been incredibly vicious,’ said Jeremy Dickinson, a fifth year philosophy graduate student.

This particular election season has a key ingredient that should lead to a landslide Obama victory: An unpopular president whose approval ratings hover around 30 percent. Because of this, the Obama campaign has tried to link McCain to President George W. Bush as often as possible. Biden’s main tactic during his speech at the Democratic National Convention was to name a McCain policy and then proclaim, ‘That’s not change! That’s more of the same!’

On campus, students do not think that merely equating the Republican candidate to President Bush is an effective strategy.

‘Honestly, I think it’s a waste of time,’ said Alex Haluska, a sophomore civil engineering major. ‘Everyone knows McCain stands apart from George Bush. Many people in the Republican party used to genuinely hate John McCain.’

On the other hand, Emily Larson, a sophomore mathematics major, thinks that Obama’s strategy ‘is a good idea if he wants to win over some Independents.’

Apparently, voters across the country are not buying what Obama is selling. It’s unlikely that Americans would cast a vote for an inexperienced community organizer solely because he is not Bush.

RealClearPolitics.com, a website that comprehensively averages polls from across the nation, has data suggesting an extremely tight, competitive election.

Individual, state-by-state polls are very close. RCP categorizes any state inside of four percentage points as being a ‘toss-up’ state. Currently 11 states are listed as toss-ups, with nine of those states being worth more than 10 electoral votes.

Obama’s shift to a negative campaign is easy to understand. Recent elections have proven that negative campaigning wins votes.

‘Even if voters say they don’t like it, they still respond to negative ads. Evidence absolutely suggests that negative campaigning is effective,’ Hanson said.

Obama has found himself in a close race, and his campaign is implementing the devious political strategies that are sadly but surely effective in election seasons.

Obama certainly does not represent some new, fresh form of positive politics. He is just as guilty, if not more so, as McCain of negative campaigning. Obama has merely perfected the art of being a classic, old school politician. Sorry, Senator, but that’s not change. That’s more of the same.

Jimmy Paul is a sophomore political science major. His columns appear every other Monday. He can be reached at jdpaul01@syr.edu.

Published on September 28, 2008 at 12:00 pm