Greg Davis and the GOP don't get it (surprised? didn't think so)

While perusing the internets for fallout from the MS-01 shocker last Tuesday, one theme has emerged that I did not foresee. For starters I live in central Mississippi (MS-03, Chip Pickering yuck!) so I do not get to see all of the advertising for MS-01. Time after time ,columnist after columnist, whether local or national, have commented on the diminishing returns on the negative ads being run by the Davis campaign.

for example:

from the Commercial Appeal:

If Southaven Mayor Greg Davis was left wondering Wednesday morning how is he now facing yet another run-off in his continuing quest to fill Mississippi's First Congressional District seat, he need only look to the advisers who convinced him to freely spend precious campaign dollars for negative, attacking television advertising.

From the Washington Post:

The message to Republicans could not be more plain: At a time when the public has soured on President Bush and the GOP, the old appeals are just not enough. To have a chance, Republican candidates have to expand their reach and reframe their message.

From the Daily Journal:

If that sounds familiar, it's because something of the same strategy - minus the Rev. Wright clip - is under way in the 1st District congressional race as Greg Davis and the Republican Party try to tarnish Democratic candidate Travis Childers, the leader in last Tuesday's special election balloting, with the Obama brush. Unable to tag Childers himself as an out-of-touch liberal since his position on the hot-button social issues is uniformly conservative, the Republicans instead are aggressively advancing the premise that just by being a Democratic member of Congress Childers will advance the liberal cause which, Davis says, is counter to "Mississippi moral values."

From Real Clear Politics:

Republicans blamed Davis' poor showing on a bitter GOP primary.