Evaluate the emerging consensus that advertising played a critical role in the outcome of the 2012 race. What effects did campaign spending have on the 2012 presidential election? Provide specific examples to illustrate your ideas

What will be an ideal response?

The ideal answer should:
a. Discuss how at the beginning of the campaign, Romney's candidacy was believed to be fatally wounded by the aggressive media campaign of Barack Obama.
b. Explain the belief that a crowded primary field forced Romney to drain his campaign resources in trying to move to the ideological fringes to beat his opponents, while Obama was unencumbered by a costly primary battle.
c.Evaluate why these claims are either misleading or wrong by drawing on the empirical data suggested by Exhibit 5.2 Partisan Balance in TV Advertising, 2004–2012, which suggests no partisan advantage in the number of ads, and through an assessment of the changing favorability ratings of Romney and Obama illustrated in Exhibit 5.3 Favorability Ratings of Presidential Candidates, 2008–2012.
d.Assess how in a tight presidential campaign, media advertising might make little difference, and how in a typical presidential election like 2012, paid media is a tool of limited value.