Is Negative Campaigning Effective?
Aired February 27, 2000 – 5:04 p.m. ET THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. GENE RANDALL, CNN ANCHOR: Much attention has been focused on the tenor of campaign 2000. The heated rhetoric on the GOP side prompted former presidential candidate Bob Dole to urge a timeout to avoid the kind of bruising battle that would be costly for the party’s eventual nominee. On the Democratic side, Bill Bradley’s sharpened attacks against Al Gore have yet to yield results. How effective is negative campaigning, especially negative TV ads? James Bennet wrote about that today in “The New York Times” magazine. Jim, before we get to your article, which is very interesting, what do you make of the George W. Bush letter to the archbishop of New York? JAMES BENNETT, “NEW YORK TIMES” MAGAZINE: Well, it’s just fascinating that, that issue is still reverberating so long after he actually appeared in South Carolina. He obviously feels that it is causing him some trou
