Michael Tomasky, liberal columnist and author, and the editor of Guardian America, has written a column criticizing the Obama campaign ads. Citing Drew Westen's book The Political Brain,, Tomasky argues that Obama's ads are making a mistake by playing to reason rather than emotion. The column also refers to the Democratic's "pretty lame" ads from 2000 and 2004.

Tomasky writes about The Living Room Candidate. From a left-wing perspective, he calls it "a rather depressing collection of Democratic and Republican ads since 1988. Have a look. It would be overstating it to say that the Republican ads are all excellent and the Democratic ads all stink, but the GOP ads as a whole pack a greater punch (and notice how often the GOP ads set the terms and the Democratic ones respond to terms the GOP has set, which is happening this year again)."