Mild attack ads get first airing

It might not be attack advertising US style but Labour's latest television ad "Don't trust John Key's double talk" is about as negative as it has got for the past few elections - nothing has quite gone near Muldoon's Dancing Cossacks ad yet.

After seeing Labor's very effective attack ads against John Howard in Australia last year, I thought Labour here would follow.

The ads are not deeply personal or offensive. They are based on differing policy positions and appear to be quite legitimate. The question is whether they will descend to something more unacceptable to the New Zealand voter.

The pictures chosen did get me wondering though. Having chosen such an aggressive photograph of John Key for the first picture in the ad, I wondered whether the Labour leader's attempt to portray Key in last week's television debate as aggressive at home was quite the error it appeared to be at the time.

Perhaps it was part of a wider strategy to try to convince the public the John Key you see in public is not the real John Key.

As I said, it is pretty tame by US standards. Anti John McCain campaigners ran

ads

pointing to scars on his face from a cancer operation,

pointing out that he has had cancer four times and asking why he won't release his medical records!

McCain was on Letterman (Prime) last night and I have to say he was such a try-hard that he looked like a loser.

Watch Labour's ad: