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Infobama-mercial Changing Hearts and Minds?
There were no celebrities in tonight's 30-minute Obama short, but there were cameos by political somebodies, governors (Bill Richardson: "He can heal this country."), senators (Claire McCaskill), and vignettes featuring real people in key states and regions: the South, New Mexico, Colorado, Missouri, covering key demographics: the elderly, white, black, and Hispanic families (though no Asian family was profiled). Overall, it was a montage to remember, one full of specific promises made in a wood-paneled room that looked a little like the Oval Office 2.0.
The key question, of course, is how many people will be moved to vote for Obama after watching him for 30 minutes, watching him detail the specifics of his commitments to health care and education, seeing pictures of his mother, learning that he calls his daughters every night, and hearing him admit he "won't be a perfect president." Some might be swayed (certainly the Harry Potter demographic has reason to believe) but while change may be on the march, it's unclear how many minds this $5 million endeavor actually changed.
My opinion at least. What did you think?
I think the infomercial was a no-brainer for his campaign. It did three key things:
1- News coverage of the commercial will dominate tomorrow's news coverage,which is 20% of the time from now until election day. It's a well spent $5M for that reason alone.
2- The campaign has tons of cash, and people gave that money expecting it to be used. At this point, it seems as though the campaign is simply looking for ways to spend $5M. Instead of saying "wow that was five million dollars," let's say "that was one thirtieth of his campaign's fundraising LAST MONTH." When you look at it that way, it wasn't too expensive.
3- I think it was useful in swaying voters. Look, if someone doesn't know who they are going to vote for at this point, they probably never will. They will make a decision in the ballot box based on a simple logic like "I want to elect the first black president ever" or "I don't trust him" or "He's inexperienced." These are not policy issues, they are feel issues. And if you watched the infomercial, it probably helped to undo a lot of the demonizing and "other"-izing that has been done to Obama. It would be hard to watch the commercial and say he was a muslim, a socialist, a baby killer, an angry black man, or any of the other things people were afraid of. There are voters who need to feel comfortable with Obama, and tonight's ad just may have done that with a couple (thousand or million) or them.
whoa. italic-tastic, ehboy! i meant to only italicize "feel issues" ... sorry folks.
I agree with you on all points, eh. Also, I think it serves as a demonstration of power--Obama's and by extension, the Democrats'. For eight years, they have been marginalized, misrepresented, even demonized. Now, with this massive media display, Obama represents a party finally off the defensive, calmly ready to take control.
I can begin to feel a sense of pride again about my government from the top down. As a New York we have a good mayor, that is technically independent, a democratic governor and now, hopefully, a president that is savvy, intelligent, impressive, well spoken, quick witted, organized and efficient. Now is one of those times its good to be an American. Hopefully on November 5th we all well begin to share that feeling and face the future as one country.
Our government seems to have the best chances for dignity and management when the high rollers of industry and finance are weakest. This is because when these folks are riding high, they are suppressing the best of our democracy. I think it is serendipity that Barack Obama's highly idealistic campaign is coinciding with the slipping gears of big business - and I believe it can play out to our overall advantage.