Obama Infomercial Well Received By Media

[bemildred]

Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign aired a 30-minute infomercial entitled "American Stories, American Solutions" Wednesday evening simultaneously on CBS, NBC, Fox, MSNBC, Univision, Black Entertainment Television, and TVOne.

ABC World News, the CBS Evening News, and NBC Nightly News all previewed the infomercial before it aired, and major newspapers cover it this morning. The Washington Post says Obama "blitzed the television airwaves" in the ad, in which he "offered details about his approach to issues such as housing, taxes, the Iraq war and energy policy." The program "ended with two minutes of live footage of Obama speaking to 20,000 cheering supporters in South Florida." USA Today says Obama strategist David Axelrod "said the campaign chose a 30-minute format to distinguish the ad from other political commercials. 'The airways are glutted with 30-second ads and it's hard to break through,' he said." The AP says the spot, "purchased at a cost that campaign aides put at roughly $4 million, not only marked Obama's attempt to seal his case with the electorate, but also underscored his enormous financial advantage in the race."

The ad is receiving very positive coverage this morning. The Politico called it a "smoothly produced infomercial" that "weaved together American iconography -- images of amber waves of grain, pickup trucks and American flags -- with portraits of iconic voters, testimonials from politicians and one business figure, footage of Obama speeches and direct appeals from the candidate." The Los Angeles Times says the spot "offered even the swiftest channel-flipper the chance to see Obama looking presidential." The New York Post says "the heavily hyped piece let Obama -- whom Republicans have tried to paint as 'different' and 'foreign' -- reinforce the notion that he's an everyman." The New York Daily News reports, "From its opening image of a rippling field of golden grain to shots of small-town U.S.A., Obama's epic echoed the style pioneered by Ronald Reagan's famous feel-good 'It's Morning in America' ads from his 1984 re-election campaign."

Speaking on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360", CNN analyst David Gergen, conceding that there were some elements of the video he could criticize, said, "At the risk of gushing, I must tell you overall it was extremely well done." On its website, ABC News reported ABC News' Chief Washington correspondent George Stephanopoulos said the infomercial "was worth 'just about every penny.'" In the Washington Post, television critic Tom Shales writes, "Somehow both poetic and practical, spiritual and sensible, the paid political broadcast...was a montage of montages, a series of seamlessly blended segments interweaving the stories of embattled Americans with visions of their deliverer, Guess Who."

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/politics/bulletin/bulletin_081030.htm

[babylonsister]

1. It was great; so nice to see our donations used so smartly. nt

[vaberella]

4. Agreed...no $150,000 waste going on here. n/t

[calmblueocean]

2. I guarantee in 2012, the Republican nominee will try to do this, too.

It gave Obama all the time he needed to tell his story, and the story of what he'd do as president, without interruption. My guess is that undecideds over the next few days break largely Obama's way now because of this. The Republicans are going to need to copy it to stay competitive in 2012.

[vaberella]

5. They'll try to do everything Obama did and not succeed. Most people will be Dem by that point. n/t

[bemildred]

3. Obama delivers TV tour de force worthy of JFK

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama delivered a TV tour de force last night.

I don’t think any presidential candidate has ever had as strong and wide-reaching a run on the medium as Obama did from the dinner hour to the midnight hour. As he shifted programming genres ranging from news to comedy, Obama altered his demeanor and calibrated his performances to the different settings with TV skills not seen since John F. Kennedy.

Obama’s race across the television landscape started with informed and thoughtful responses to some tough questions from anchorman Charles Gibson on ABC World News at 6:30 p.m., and was still going strong as the clock approached midnight with live cable TV coverage of a speech in Florida where Obama was joined onstage by former President Bill Clinton. It was the first time these two men -- two of the most eloquent speakers in American politics -- stood side by side that way.

In between, was the highly publicized, prime-time infomercial that ran on three networks and four cable channels at 8 p.m., an effective and affecting production aimed at helping viewers get to know Obama better – even as it also personalized the nation's current hard times through the stories of four diverse American families.

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/zontv/2008/10/obama_delivers_tv_tour_de_forc.html

[eshfemme]

6. Seriously, seeing how well Obama's used the money he's raised

makes me think that he'll be just as frugal in the White House with the taxpayer's money. He'll make mistakes but I really do think that with all the money he has raised, he could have just burned it away but he didn't and he still milked it for all its worth. This is likely a quality that he shares with Warren Buffet, an Obama supporter who's in the top 3 of the richest people on Earth that still lives a middle class life.

I'd prefer a President that'll get us the most bang for our buck over the spendthrifts we've been getting, please. Hell, even Bill Clinton with his great track record wasn't as frugal as he could have been. I think Obama's far superior than Bubba in this respect.

[nichomachus]

7. Obama is just like Reagan

except that Obama has a functioning brain and isn't trying to destroy the middle class to turn them into wage slaves. Oh -- and he loves his wife and kids.

[Cha]

8. This is Great.. The Obama Special paid for

by the American peeps. Thank you, bemildred.

[DeepModem Mom]

9. K&R