I don't exactly understand Mike Bloomberg's strategy in running this election for his third term. I mean, if he didn't have ads on every 20 seconds saying how bad Bill Thompson sucked, I would bet a good amount of money that most New Yorkers wouldn't have the slightest idea of who was running against him. The only reason people know Bill Thompson's name is because of those ads.
What he should have done was just put those ads on where he's walking around an idealized city and people talk about how great he is, whether it's actually true or not, and just put out the image of himself that he wants out there. He's outspending this gie a trillion to one, but he's essentially advertising for Thompson. The smear campaign is so overused at this point that it's just standard fare. All it really serves to do is get the names out there. Bloomy doesn't need to counter any negative ads from Thompson, because Thompson isn't running any ads at all. I know it's just a reflex to run negative ads at this point, but seriously, you're doing yourself a disservice here.