In all three cases -- Hillary, Merkley, and Macpherson -- the establishment candidate is on the receiving end of a serious challenge from a political novice. We know that Hillary's done, but Merkley and Macpherson are looking at their latest polls and realizing that they might actually lose, too. It's shaping up to be that kind of year.

In desperation, they're throwing everything they have at their opponent. It will be interesting to see if it works, or if the ads backfire.

At least Macpherson's ads are mildly humorous. An interesting feature of them is how blatantly they go against the conventional wisdom of leaving one's opponent unnamed (a corollary of the theory that any publicity, however negative, is helpful). I guess it's hard to be very negative without being fairly specific.

Is it just me who finds the television ad by Merkley's wife one of the LAMEST I've seen in a very long time?

Since Kari is so into full disclosure, I wonder what his role was in the data mining of Blue Oregonian to attack Steve Novick? For starters was it his idea?
Not that there's anything wrong with it.
Political operatives certainly don't sit back during the weeks before an election and say, "I think I'll do nothing." This is when the attempts to be slick usually appear, often with humorous counterproductive results.
For example, the more Steve Novick gets honked off about something the more I like him.

I don't think I would brag about being the face of old Oregon.

Macpherson's ads are so offensive (to me anyway) that I feel like I need to wash my eyes out with lye after seeing them. Maybe some cyanide mouthwash to go along with it. I hope Kroger provides Macpherson with a dose of death with dignity and runs the s.o.b. out of politics for awhile.

One has to hand it to mrfearless47 -- he certainly has a working grasp of "offensive".

This ad isn't the Greg I used to know, and he must be truly worried about his chances for him to be drifting into this territory.

Ummm. This is exactly MacPherson's M.O.

These ads are no more misleading than the M49 ballot title con-job he foisted on us last year.

He's a likeable enough fellow and a fairly adept politician (even if I abhor his politics), but he is way too comfortable at rationalizing circumstances where the end (promoting his political career) justifies the means (misleading voters).

The thought of him being our AG scares me.

but since I'm publicly financed, I didn't take a dime from big business.

Remind me of the time that the public had a say in that decision?

As the kids say, lol.

This one hain't got much astro spam in it ... then, too, maybe it does.

Stuff deserves case-by-case consideration, (e.g, Hillary is Scorpio, scorpions sting themselves to death first, (self-destruct) when seeing it as inevitable), and astrowork seems questionably vague when dealing in 'general rules' for 'establishment-type' candidates -- or, as in 'pop' astrology, of newspaper columns, totally vague for the 'general' group born in a particular month.

Perhaps there is (mass psychology) insight, though, in establishment-type candidates' supporters; listening to the vox populi, or, these days, for crying out loud, 'splinter group hysterics.'

The very candidacies of Hillary, Kroger, Middaugh, and Smith, are politics without a cause. Doth insist too much. Notice all the rightwing voices here are all so pro-Kroger, (and Rash Lamebrain all so pro-Hillary), being hysterical to damage democracy and the Democratic, not because the candidacy stands for anything positive, because it doesn't -- the rightwing psychosis does NOT stand for anything, only No Change, cannot handle Changes; it is defined in negation: No Evolution, etc., (see: the two core principles of conservatism as resistance to change, and acceptance of social inequality.)

The Bushbabies have overreached, and sense their own demise of it. Hence, the pisano braggadaccio 'confidence' and dogmatic (denial) 'interpretation' in affairs which are plainly going against the rightwingers who can sense the pushback from the vast majority -- vox populi to fascists: 'Drop dead.'

Fascists to anyone who is still listening: 'It ain't over 'til it's over.'

No. It IS over. All over. Except for the shouting 'it ain't over.' Hillary, Kroger, Middaugh, Smith disasters (def'n: unaligned stars) are candidates under the celestial sign Toast, overdone too close to the Sun -- judas hubris (translation: Get out).

When I saw the start of the add and you said it was a Kroger add I thought the punchline was going to be McPherson had never tried a case in court. He better watch out that doesn't backfire on him.

"My opponent," he says, as if there were only one, "has taken thousands of dollars from some of Portland's biggest developers, but since I'm publicly financed, I didn't take a dime from big business."

And where does all that public money come from? I doubt they are growing it in the basement at City Hall.
Something doesnt get paid in order to finance VOE.

Maybe I come from a rougher neighborhood, but Greg's ad just doesn't seem all that negative to me. Have we become so sensitive that a political candidate can't even mention his opponent's shortcomings? It is true that Kroger just took the Oregon bar last summer. It is also true that his short tenure in the state raises real questions about Kroger's commitment to Oregonians. Can we all please stop acting so shocked and outraged at what are pretty mild political ads?