Buying of the President Published — February 3, 2016 Updated — February 6, 2016 at 7:47 pm ET Introduction Video by Eleanor Bell. For the past six months, political TV ads have extolled the virtues of presidential hopefuls, tore down opponents and in one instance, set pastoral scenes to the tune of Simon and Garfunkel. So, which strategy worked? One things for sure: Iowans prefer nice over nasty.