More Than $100 Million in Attack Ads Fails to Move Voters
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After spending more than $100 million airing mostly negative ads in the last three months, President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney and their allies haven’t been able to move the public-opinion needle in the states most likely to determine the general election.
In seven battleground states the candidates are either statistically tied or Obama holds a slight advantage, polls show. The deadlock comes as the campaign moves into a more critical phase that includes the presumptive Republican nominee’s foreign trip and running-mate selection and the two national conventions in late August and early September.