July 29, 2012 at 10:45 AM ET on CNN's State of the Union with Candy Crowley

Ken Goldstein, Ron Brownstein, & Michael Scherer analyze the ads of the 2012 presidential campaign cycle.

Click on the image above to view the CNN interview.

This presidential campaign is very much about the competition. The Obama campaign, Ken explains, is trying to define Mitt Romney before Mitt Romney has a chance to define himself.

By the end of this campaign, over $3 billion will have been spent on spot local television ads--$3.7 billion when you add in national cable buys, most of which will be negative.