http://voices.washingtonpost.com/behind-the-numbers/2008/10/attacking_vs_addressing_issues.htmlAttacking vs. Addressing Issues
About six in 10 voters see Republican John McCain as mainly on the attack, while most see Democrat Barack Obama as focused on the issues, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
Nearly seven in 10 of those surveyed Wednesday through Saturday said Obama is primarily addressing the issues in the campaign; 59 percent said McCain is instead focused on attacking Obama. The number seeing McCain on the offensive is up sharply from before the nominating conventions, and the disparity between the two candidates jibes with a recent analysis showing McCain's advertising almost exclusively focused on Obama's perceived negatives.
A report last week by the University of Wisconsin Advertising Project found that nearly all of McCain's TV spots at the beginning of the month were negative ads, compared with about a third of Obama's. But both sides have been doing their share of negative ads: Overall, the university researchers show that 73 percent of McCain's ads and 61 percent of Obama's have been negative in tone over the course of the campaign.