A half-hour from now, Barack Obama’s 30-minute TV commercial comes on. I’ll be watching on MSNBC, so I won’t have to wait for West Coast prime time.If I have something to say about it, I’ll post it here. If anybody else feels like commenting, please do.
For me, the real show is gonna be at 11 p.m. Eastern Time (8 p.m. Pacific). That’s when Obama and Bill Clinton appear together at a rally in Florida. (Jimmy Smits will be there too.)
C-SPAN will broadcast the rally live. Yay, C-SPAN!
5:40 p.m. (Pacific Time): Meh. At this stage of the game, it’s still all about making white folks in Middle America comfortable with Barack Obama.
It was a well-produced show... and politically sophisticated, with its targeted shout-outs to battleground states such as Missouri, New Mexico and Colorado. It reaffirms for me the sense that the most impressive thing about Barack Obama, apart from his on-camera skills, is the high professionalism of his campaign team.
If he can run the country the way he ran this campaign, Obama will have a successful presidency.
I don’t know that this half-hour special was necessary, but it can’t hurt. The only thing that bugged me was the recycled material... the stuff about his absentee father and his mother’s cancer, which was shown during the Democratic Convention, I think.
What did y’all think?
8:37 p.m. Wow. President Clinton was just spitting fire down there in Florida!He made a passionate case for why Barack Obama should be elected president. It was carried live by CNN and MSNBC (but not, curiously, by Fox News... a mere oversight, I’m sure).
All is forgiven, Bill. Way to stand on the mound in the top of the 9th inning and throw that heat. Clinton’s performance tonight, far as I’m concerned, means more than Obama’s own half-hour infomercial.
Everything in that infomercial we’d already heard before. But Bill Clinton doing this is headline news.
15 minutes in...very, very depressing. he's talking about really, really serious intractable problems.
ReplyDeletenow switching to stuff about his family. sweet.
...shorty, ...Obama rocked it!
ReplyDeletePeace
I liked it. When he went live and ended the show with perfect timing, I was awed by his precision. Obama '08. Have you voted yet?
ReplyDeleteHave you voted yet?
ReplyDeleteNope, Kellybelle. They've got advance voting by mail in California... but I was out of town for a few weeks, so I was unable to get a mail-in ballot.
Not that it'll make much difference in California. But I do look forward to standing in line on Tuesday.
That was awesome! I don't no who to give the credit to but, kudos to his graphic team. Great job what a finishing act.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was well done and geared more towards the "undecided" and "independent" voters.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's hard to top Bill Clinton when he's revving up a crowd. I wonder what kind of deal Obama's made with him? There seems to have been some mutual ass-kissing going on there.
ReplyDeleteI thought the video was a little too self-consciously earnest but the production values were outstanding.
Dang! I couldn't see the toss to the live Obama. I had to watch it on the HuffPo.
ReplyDeleteVery, very slick. I agree with Rachel Maddow: He had me at the waving wheat, but will it get them to the polls. That's where the effort needs to be.
Neptune, I share your thoughts: What did he promise Bill and Hillary? Bill was on FIRE!
And, yes, I mailed my ballot in last week. The proudest $5 stamp I ever bought.
^ Yay, GG!
ReplyDeleteI'm just psyched the info-mercial beat out the World Series in ratings. I'll have to find the Bill moment online. I saw him at the convention in Denver. When Bill gets past his funky stuff, he can definitely get down. The Clintons will definitely still be in play, but they have to redefine their roles and even behavior in what may be a necessary power shift in the party. They showed some true colors during the primaries, but I knew once they got on the campaign trail folks would forgive (but not forget). People who've worked with the Clintons have some interesting stories. I voted in early voting. I'll be on call to pick up voters and then hopefully live blogging from D.C.'s Busboys and Poets for the election returns. I'll post the latest about that at my blog www.eclectique916.com. I've posted voting information on the blog page "The Eclectique Citizen."
ReplyDelete... forgive (but not forget).
ReplyDeleteThat's it.
I'll be checking you out Tuesday night, Eclectique.