George Stephanopoulos: Obama Infomercial a Virtuoso Performance

[babylonsister]

http://blogs.abcnews.com/george/2008/10/obama-infomerci.html

Obama Infomercial a Virtuoso Performance

October 29, 2008 10:02 PM


This was a very highly produced, technically incredibly competent half hour of television that was worth every penny.

It was all designed to get voters comfortable with the idea of Barack Obama in the Oval Office, that he is embedded in the lives of average Americans, and knows exactly what they're going through.

Obama even appeared in a facsimile of the White House Oval Office during the infomercial. Every single line during that 30 minutes was something that the campaign knows works and appeals to those undecided voters.

There was one point during those 30 minutes where he talked about education. Over images of Obama in a classroom with children, they rolled a tape of Obama's Sept. 9, 2008 speech in Dayton, Ohio:

"Responsibility for our children's' success doesn't start in Washington," Obama said. "It starts in our homes. No education policy can replace a parent who's involved in their child's education from day one, who makes sure their children are in school on time, helps them with their homework, and attends those parent-teacher conferences. No government program can turn off the TV set, or put away the video games, or read to your children."

The campaign knows for a fact that when Obama said those lines during the debate, it had the highest response of the entire debate from voters hooked up to dial groups.

So they repeated it again tonight and that idea was reprised again and again over these 30 minutes.

Every idea that Obama talked about is something the campaign knows appeals to those undecided voters, especially those economically distressed voters in the nation right now.

What you saw here was a highly competent, professional, virtuoso performance. The fact that they could go 28 minutes in and hit live to a campaign rally in Florida and right down to the final Obama Biden logo that showed a rising sun. One of the things the campaign knows is that the most optimistic presidential candidate always wins.

Ross Perot had some money to do a similar type of infomercial back in 1992 but he had a very, very primitive production.

I spoke with a former presidential campaign strategist who said that anyone who has worked in a presidential campaign has to be jealous of the toys that the Obama campaign cash can buy.

Obama's Republican rival John McCain has argued the ad, which is estimated to have cost more than $3 million, was bought with Obama's broken campaign promise to take public financing which would have limited the amount of money he could raise.

Tonight McCain-Palin spokesman Tucker Bounds released this statement: "As anyone who has bought anything from an infomercial knows, the sales-job is always better than the product. Buyer beware."

That's an implicit admission that they know that the message worked, they just hope that the messenger won't be trusted.

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[Window]

1. High praise, indeed. K/R.

:kick:

[JNelson6563]

2. The thing about the Obama campaign

It has been such an awe inspiring, highly organized, on-the-ball operation you don't see the usual shit-flinging from our own side we often see at least small amounts of. No, this is the sort of thing all cannot help but be impressed with and want to be a part of.

Julie