Politics | Barack Obama Obama's Right to Go Negative Obama stayed cool during primaries, but this is whole new ball game By Drew Nelles Posted Aug 7, 2008 2:24 PM CDT Copied Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., listens to a question from the media aboard his campaign charter jet while in flight back to Chicago, Ill., Thursday, Aug. 7, 2008. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Barack Obama is going negative on John McCain, something he never did in the primary race against Hillary Clinton. But that doesn’t mean he’s abandoning a winning strategy. The current race is worlds apart from his tête-à-tête with Clinton, Noam Scheiber writes in the New Republic. For one, it’s “easier to go negative on an old white guy.” In the primaries, Obama had two advantages: his early opposition to the Iraq war, and his “new politics” style. “If Obama had gone negative, he would have ceded one of those two key assets,” Scheiber says. But now, Obama—a popular Democrat with popular policies—can only benefit from linking McCain to the “radioactive” George W. Bush. Read These Next A space capsule carrying ashes of 160 people crashed in the ocean. A lesson in minding your own business ... at 30,000 feet. The death toll in the Texas floods has risen to 27, including 9 kids. Desperate search for missing campers continues in Texas. Report an error