McCain ad on houses more effective than Obama's

I just saw Frank Luntz talking to Bill O'Reilly about the effectiveness of the ads Obama was running on the McCain houses versus the one McCain ran on Obama and his buddy Rezko. Luntz showed the graphic on the response of the focus group of undecided voters and the McCain ad won by a huge margin. I had thought the Obama ad was unfair, but the focus group did not react to it because it did not indicate the McCain had done something wrong.

The ad about Obama and Rezko helping him buy his house and getting $14 million in government contracts struck a huge cord with the voters.

Luntz says this finding confirms the superior effectiveness of the McCain ads over the last month.

The Telegraph had more from the Luntz focus groups response to Obama.

The results of a focus group held by Frank Luntz, the leading American pollster, on the eve of the Democratic convention should sound alarm bells for the Obama campaign after a month in which Mr McCain, the Republican, has drawn level in the polls.

"The way that he gets here to the Democratic nomination - 'change' - is not how he gets there, to the White House," said Mr Luntz. "If it's change, by itself, he will fail. Change what? Change how? Change why?" Mr Luntz is a Republican but his work on focus groups is respected on both sides of the aisle.

Some 21 carefully-selected undecided voters were gathered in a conference room in a downtown skyscraper. Observed by The Daily Telegraph and a small group of other media through a one-way mirror, they were grilled by Mr Luntz about their views of the candidates in a two-hour session.

Although 12 said they had voted for President George W. Bush in 2004, not a single person described themselves as a Republican - bad news for Mr McCain, who has to shake off his party label to claim victory.

But these undecideds were willing to separate their disdain for the Republican party from the individual candidates. The one-word descriptions of Mr Obama showed he has mountain to climb to overcome the doubts of these swing voters in the swing state of Colorado - a top Democratic target in November.

Among the words offered for Mr Obama: apocalypse, terrifying, scary, pizzazz, unknown, inexperienced, innovative, new, charismatic, smooth, unaffordable, change, hopeful.

Mr McCain's name inspired: dependable, strong, experienced, scary, patriot, veteran, experienced, Bush Two, veteran, older generation, little boy, integrity, frightening, honest, older, cantankerous, repeat.

...

But another disturbing element for Mr Obama was how sceptical and even dismissive most of the group was about the word that has been central to his campaign - change. Some voters believed Mr Obama could not relate to them and did not share their everyday concerns.

"Stop giving me all these general things," said Doug, 48, a fireman. "I want specifics, not pie in the sky. There were nods around the room. "He has to put some substance behind the charismatic talk," interjected another man.

A woman in her 60s said: "I want less oratory; show me what you have done and what you are going to do." Sondra, 43, a catering manager, said: "Change for change's sake got us in this mess. We want change but we're afraid of what it might bring."

Asked to address Mr Obama directly, the voters said: "How are you going to get it done?"; "Prove you have experience."; "How will you fix things?"; "Stop the dramatic talk, we want reality."; "Focus on issues, not personality."; "Don't just give me an empty balloon."

...

This focus group of independents proves a couple of points I have been making here for months. First the way to beat a candidate with charisma is to make him get specific and to ask for his list of accomplishments. Second, I have said for some time that the undecided have been going against Obama when they get in the voting both. If Obama is not polling over 50 percent on election day he is probably going to lose.

The NY Times Caucus Blog also references another focus group that does not have good news for Obama. He is not able to reach out and touch voters they say. It was a focus group made up of Latino voters too. The voters are having trouble coming up with specific reasons to vote for Obama. That is because Obama has given few if any specifics in his campaign of "unity, hope and change."