http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/378092A Chronicle of Despair, A Promise of Change
posted by John Nichols on 10/29/2008 @ 10:05pm
Before he dismissed it as a "gauzy, feel-good commercial," John McCain really should have watched the thirty-minute television program that Barack Obama's campaign aired Wednesday night.
There was nothing particularly "gauzy" about the image of an Ohio woman struggling to open medicine containers with arthritic hands, or that of her husband heading off -- at age 73 -- to work at a Wal-Mart store.
There was nothing "feel good" about lingering shot of a Ford worker, leaning against his truck and looking at the Louisville auto plant where his hours have been cut in half and his wife has been laid off.
Barack Obama was the star of his own commercial, as is to be expected of a presidential candidate on the cusp of a national election.
But this final national appeal to the hearts and souls of undecided voters -- particularly working-class whites in the remaining battleground states of the upper Midwest and the Hispanic women in the southwest -- was all about an economy that no longer works for tens of millions of Americans.
There were no Ross Perot flip charts, no John Kerry with Bruce Springsteen flourishes.
This was an expression of empathy, a report from Barack Obama about what he has learned after spending the better part of two years with a hurting populace.
snip//
This was a commercial, to be sure.
But it was, as well, a statement. And Barack Obama's determination to make it the closing message of this long campaign will go a long way toward reassuring uncertain voters about the president he intends to be.
Most commercials aren't worth the thirty seconds it takes to watch them.
Obama's commercial is a thirty minute slice of an American story that was crying out to be told... and that Barack Obama heard.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
