Source This probably means that McCain should pull out of MN as well, since this senator basically said "Thanks, but no thanks!"
Negative attacks are red meat to those already on board, but you don't have to win them over. To the swing voters, they're anathema. You're personally attacking someone that they might be voting for. Coleman just figured it out. McCain almost did yesterday.
It's almost sad to see the McCain campaign crumble before our eyes. While I don't want him to win I'd have liked to see him lose with some dignity.
Negative attacks can work with swing voters, but they have to fit in to a narrative that those voters already believe and they have to be used in conjunction with ads that highlight what the attacker believes. So Willie Horton worked because people were more than ready to believe a Massachusetts Democrat was soft on crime. McCain, on the other hand, has gone 100% negative with attacks that no one but the nutters believes--Obama is not a Muslim or a terrorist sympathizer, and there's no narrative that exists to fool people into believing those negative attacks--at a time when people desperately want to know what's going to be done about the economy. I can't say anything about the content of Coleman's ads, but I'd guess that he too is nearly 100% negative while Franken's talking about fixing the economy.
Eh. Norm Coleman is a good guy. He did good as [Republican] mayor of St. Paul. What do you think, marathon? Are you ready for four years of Senator Al Franken?
I don't know why McCain is bothering with Minnesota anyways. It's too late to be trying to over blue states and there are too many states in play right now. He needs to be in Florida,North Carolina,Virginia,Indiana,Colorado,Nevada and Ohio.If he can hold those, he wins.