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I would be curious to see a study of ad spending by region and date by MoveOn.org, the Media Fund and other anti-Bush groups. It seems to be a pattern that when the Kerry campaign cuts back ads to save money, the leftist and liberal 527s fill the gap. Then they cut back when Kerry's campaign gears up to target a market.
I suppose the Kerry campaign may sincerely believe that the Swifties are working for the Bush campaign, since they no doubt believe that MoveOn and the others are working for them.
With the attention being paid to 527 spending, I haven't seen much on the old-style issue ads. So-called 527s actually favor a candidate; they are just not supposed to coordinate with the official campaign. But in previous election cycles we have seen the influence of issue-oriented groups who do not advocate for a candidate, but for an issue (which often just happens to help a particular candidate). This was always a Democratic edge over the GOP. Although the issue groups run the political spectrum, (the NRA is a particularly big one), the big winners are the Democrats, through spending by groups like the AFL/CIO and NAACP. Remember the notorious NAACP anti-Bush ad from 2000: "It was like they lynched my father again"?
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