The Republican and Democratic national political conventions may foreshadow the two parties’ approach to television advertising in the eight weeks running up to the election.

For the GOP, it’s likely to be about the candidates. The Democrats are more likely to advertise their policy positions.

Political consultants last week suggested it won’t take long to see those messages translate into competing ads from each party. They expected those spots to break over the weekend following the Republican gathering.

Those messages are expected to carry over into ads for Senate and Congress races, which are expected to roll out starting this week.

In her speech at the Republican National Convention, VP nominee Sarah Palin set out the palette the party will use to paint its Democratic rivals.

Gov. Palin’s speech seemed to echo McCain campaign manager Rick Davis’ comments to the Washington Post. Mr. Davis said, “This election is not about issues. This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates.”

Ms. Palin mentioned some of Mr. Obama’s stances, but much of the speech attacked Mr. Obama’s background and his qualification for office. She used her own background as a comparison, characterizing herself as a hockey mom from a small town.

“I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities,” she said in a slap at Mr. Obama’s background as a political operative.

“I might add that in small towns, we don’t quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren’t listening,” she said in a second slight.
Those tactics came a week after Mr. Obama and his VP pick, Sen. Joe Biden, used their Denver convention to lay out major policy differences with Sen. McCain on issues like the economy, health care and taxation.

Taking a broader tack, Sen. Biden said in his nomination acceptance speech, “The choice in this election is clear. These times require more than a good soldier; they require a wise leader, a leader who can deliver change—the change everybody knows we need.”

“The issue now is whether a man who has spent 26 years in Washington and who offers the same economic policies as George Bush can convince America that he is the change we need,” Steve McMahon, a principal at Democratic consultancy Issues & Images, said of Sen. McCain. “That has been John McCain’s challenge from the beginning, and no matter how well Gov. Palin performs in this campaign, that is the challenge that remains.”