Back in the olden days (that is, up until 2004), when you got ready to make a political ad about your opponent, you found the least flattering footage of him/her, made sure it was blurry, put it in slow motion, and faded it to black and white.
Throw in some ominous music and low frequency booms, and it didn't matter if the footage was originally of the candidate reaching out to hug his mother, he now looked like a swamp monster about to eat a baby. "Joe Smith wants to RAISE YOUR TAXES AND GIVE YOU AN ABORTION!" DUM-DUM-DUM! It just looked like you were caught doing something.
Later, if you really wanted to make it look bad, add a time counter to the black and white footage to imply surveillance, a la Marion Barry. What law was Joe Smith breaking in this footage? "Joe Smith cannot be trusted to NOT make you marry a gay!" Whatever, it didn't matter because there was Smith with a time counter.
And don't even get me started on night vision. Now Smith is a pervert for sure like Paris Hilton! I mean, look at his eyes glow bright green!
But here we are now in 2008, and the quickest way to look guilty? Low-resolution, compressed, low frame rate YouTube clips. NOTHING is more sinister than a squishy distorted YouTube clip! Why? Because it is now synonymous with being CAUGHT ON TAPE! Secret footage THEY don't want you to see!!!!
Blame Rev. Wright, naturally. Or not necessarily him, but the footage of him. The new meme on mainstream media is that YouTube = Uh-Oh! So allow me to suggest some campaign ad ideas to the Obama team. All the footage you are about to use of him... upload it to YouTube first, then download it, then zoom in on it, put "courtesy youtube.com" in the corner, then let 'er rip!
P.S. Someone please start a Flesh Tone Watch Team, to watch for darkening of Obama's skin tone in negative ads against him.