"This is setting records for the most negative campaign," he says.
"A number of pundits are suggesting that this has been the most negative campaign ever…," Mr. Smithson wrote.
Nonetheless, the White House official said, the "heavy lift" of the most negative campaigning would be done by surrogates like Vice President Dick Cheney, who strongly attacked Mr. Kerry on Wednedsay in a speech at the Reagan library in California.
In January, the Campaign Media Analysis Group, which studies election advertising, declared the Florida primary to be "the most negative campaign ever", after finding that 92% of ads aired in the state during the final week of the Republican primary were negative in tone.
A Wesleyan Media Project study concluded 2010 actually was the most negative campaign season in recent election cycles.
In 2012, Romney had led the Republican field through the bulk of the primary season, and consequently was the chief target of most negative campaigning.
"So it's very gratifying to see President Obama come out from behind his billion-dollar campaign, most of it negative -- by far the most negative campaign that's ever been run in American history -- and have to stand on stage and answer questions and defend his record," Stevens said.
Continuing the theme of her campaign, Senator Clinton used every single opportunity she had to launch misleading attack after misleading attack against Barack Obama, which is why polls show that most Americans think she's running the most negative campaign and don't believe she's trustworthy.
Having been defeated in my last election for Michigan's Supreme Court, I understand better than most how negative campaigns and innuendo-laced attack ads are distorting the selection of high court judges.
Instead, the Republican primary contest has produced the most negative, mean campaign since the Watergate scandal brought about campaign-finance changes four decades ago.
