Poll: Obama's ads positive, McCain's not

WASHINGTON, Aug. 7 (UPI) -- Republicans and Democrats show a degree of agreement concerning U.S. presidential campaign commercials, a Pew Research study indicates.

On balance, members of both major parties said they think Sen. Barack Obama's commercials have been mostly positive, Pew's weekly News Interest Index survey released Thursday indicated. Pluralities of both parties indicated Sen. John McCain's ads were mostly negative.

When asked about specific commercials, those tested for each candidate indicated similar recall levels for specific ads. Forty-one percent said they have seen McCain's commercial that compares Barack Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. Forty-three percent said they had seen Obama's ad when he talks about growing up in Kansas.

By a 76-percent-to-11 percent margin, respondents named Obama, D-Ill., over McCain, R-Ariz., as the candidate they have heard the most about in recent days. That wasn't necessarily a good thing as 48 percent of Pew's respondents said they had been hearing too much about the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee lately.

Results for the weekly surveys are based on telephone interviews with approximately 1,000 adults July 28-Aug.3. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.