Perspectives on Accuracy/Efficacy of Attack Ads

Check out this transcript of an extremely lively debate that took place on "Hardball" with Chris Mattews (MSNBC) re: the swift boat attack ads. It features Larry Thurlow, Michael Dobbs, Max Cleland, Michelle Malkin, Willie Brown, Dana Milbank, and David Gergen.

Here's an excerpt:

GERGEN: "That‘s the point, Chris. More than whether Kerry gains or Bush gains is the fact that it‘s not good for the country. To have an argument about the past when we should talk about the future is trivializing what we face as a nation. How will we come up with a strategy to win this war on terrorism?

"Where will the next president go over the next four years? To divert attention from that issue is harmful to the process. I will tell you—the Republicans do not help themselves. Over time when you have a pattern from—when they went after John McCain in South Carolina when they went after his war record and then went after Max Cleland in 2002 and one of the Republican leaders Ann Coulter said maybe it‘s his own fault that he lost three limbs in Vietnam.

"Now they‘re going after Kerry on his war record. This is really a mistaken, terribly wrong-heading pattern for the Republicans. It only drives people away. These things can work in the short term, but in the long term McCain was helped. His stature grew after the South Carolina primary and the president‘s stature, while he helped himself in the short-term, he was hurt in the long-term."