A new kind of politics: What does that mean?

A key message of the Barack Obama campaign is "Change". This has a number of meanings in the campaign but a primary one, in my opinion, is the need to change our politics. Senator Obama often talks about the need to rise above petty politics and divisiveness and instead focus on issues and honest dialogue in search of solutions. But what does all that mean? How is Barack Obama different than the other candidates still in the race? I believe a key example is the negative attacks that are so common in old style politics.

As I was thinking about this post, another Blogger did a nice analysis that clearly demonstrates the issue. Rather than come up with my own measure, I'll refer to that analysis. The chart below graphs the number of press releases from each campaign and respective parties (Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee) that mention other candidates. The assumption here, which seems obvious, is that a campaign only mentions the competitor when they are throwing mud.

If we focus just on stuff from candidates, you need to look at the lighter blue, the dark blue, and the bright red. These are attacks coming from Clinton, Obama, and McCain respectively. As can be clearly seen, the bars representing "from McCain" and "from Clinton" are much larger than the minuscule bars representing "from Obama."

To me, this provides a nice picture into the true commitment Obama has made to "a new kind of politics." Again, check it out for yourself. Visit the press release page for each campaign and decide which "tone" represents what you want leading our country.

Links to campaign press releases:

Obama

Clinton

McCain

-----------------------------------------
Do you agree? Please consider helping me reach my fund-raising goal by clicking here or on the thermometer image to the right. If you can't donate, please consider leaving a comment below to show your support.