I will be writing occasional posts for Wonkblog about the presidential advertising.  My first post is up now, featuring the graph above, this new analysis by the Wesleyan Media Project, and so newly published research by Travis Ridout, Michael Franz, Ken Goldstein, and William Feltus.

The main story the past several weeks, as the graph makes clear, is how much the GOP stood down during the Olympics, DNC relative to the Democrats.  Here’s the punchline, at least for the moment:

But Obama supporters should not get too excited.  The effects of ads also decay quickly.  Any advantage over these past several months, or even these past two weeks, should be less important than an advantage in late October.

[Cross-posted at The Monkey Cage]

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John Sides is an associate professor of political science at George Washington University.