Although it has often been said in recent days that John McCain has run a far more negative campaign than his main rival for the presidency Barack Obama, research shows that both campaigns spent approximately the same amount on negative ads.

The main reason the percentage of negative ads are lower with Obama is that he has more money to spend, and that he spends a significant part of his money on ‘positive’ ads.  

But overall, just looking at the amount of money spent on negative ads, leads to the conclusion that both are equally negative.

McCain buys 100 negative ads, so does Obama. The difference is that Obama also has the money to buy 100 positive ads – McCain does not.

All in all, Obama outspent McCain by more than 2:1: $21.5 million vs. $9.2 million. Obama’s campaign spends roughly half of that $21.5 million on negative ads. That is almost $10 million in total.

Campaign Media Analysis Group’s Evan Tracey told CNN: “McCain is almost all negative because he needs to be,” Tracey said, adding that McCain is “behind in the polls and outgunned.”

“He can’t afford the positive ads Obama can. … It’s not likely McCain can raise his own positives with only weeks left but he can raise Obama’s negatives.”

But the narrative of McCain being far more negative than Obama is much easier and more fun!