Via Mashable
During the last presidential election in the United States a new term came into being. The term was swiftboating, which according to Wikipedia means “is American political jargon that is used as a strong pejorative description of some kind of attack that the speaker considers unfair or untrue—for example, an ad hominem attack or a smear campaign.” While it was used in the 2004 campaign against Sen. John Kerry with some success, it was never a term or method used against the incumbent George Bush.
As popular as swiftboating was in the 2004 election cycle, many thought that it would also be used to an even larger degree in this 2008 election. However this has turned out not to be the case. A much more effective way to torpedo opponents has been discovered with a lot of money being spent by both sides in order to scuttle the opposition. The new method of attack is as simple as buying Google AdWords and Facebook SocialAds for your opponents name or ideas and then having them point to Web pages that cast the person or ideas in a negative light.
To give you an idea of the kind of money being spent on this new form of attack, the Obama campaign spent more money on paid search in February than both President Bush and Sen. John Kerry did for the entire 2004 election cycle. Now, the McCain campaign have been no slouches either, having hired the political marketing firm of Connell Donatelli to handle the dirty work.
