June 19, 2008
First Obama General Election TV Ad: “Country I Love”
Barack Obama follows the time-tested and typical campaign playbook by making his first campaign ad a minute long biographical piece with nice music in the background. The theme of this particular ad seems to be: “I love America! And have I mentioned how much I love America?”
The Obama campaign is running this ad in 18 different states – a huge buy that will run them between $1.5 and $3 million per week and highlights their cash advantage in this campaign. And some of the states they’re running it in are interesting picks…
Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Virginia.
I don’t really get the use of biographical ads like this one, but I imagine it will probably do its job in softening people’s perception of Obama.
http://race42008.com/2008/06/19/first-obama-general-election-tv-ad-country-i-love/trackback/
June 19th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
I get it. He is separating himself from the image of an out-of-touch elitist. I think it is a good ad. If he is able to count on Kerry’s blue states and hammer a dozen or so of Bush’s from 2004 this could put McCain into defense mode of the red states and really make things tough.
June 19th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Interesting. Barack Obama’s acting like a conservative to try to win (welfare reform? tax cuts?) and John McCain’s acting like a liberal to try to win (global warming? anti-Wall Street?).
June 19th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Josiah is right on the money, ha ha! Obama forgot the about about decimating the military. Maybe in part II
June 19th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Surprising he isn’t running it in Kansas since it’d be cheap and Kansas is a theme of the ad.
June 19th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Lair!
Obama was not raised in Kansas by his grandparents. He moved away as a very young child. I do not understand why the media allows these lies? Is anyone going to call him on this?
June 19th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
I don’t think he claims to be from Kansas. I think he says he was raised with the Kansas values of his grandparents.
Maybe I’m just too much of a skeptic, but does anyone else think that one of the things you are supposed to come away with here is that his mother/maternal grandparents are white?
Next thing you know they’ll show photos of McCain with his mixed race children and tie it into his divorce…
June 19th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Smart man. As we get closer to the election and people start paying attention to the election he is painting a pretty picture of perfect politician so loving and caring. Cross your fingers and hope that people actually do a little homework on this guy, because ads like this can get a lot of people swooning over nothing.
June 19th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
eric,
Obama always claims he was raised in Kansas by his grandparents. This is Bill Clinton all over again. Paint a picture not entirely true.
In fact, McCain lived in the Hanoi Hilton longer than Obama lived in Kansas.
June 19th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
fact check everyone,
In fact Obama never lived in Kansas. He move to Indonesia as a child and moved back to the states (Hawaii) in his pre-teens.
LogcabinGOP is correct on one thing, the MSM (Washpost, etc) have all reported on his Kansas roots, but in fact he never actually lived there. It is a big PR stunt that many people now believe to be true.
Since McCain is related to George Washington, I guess he could make claim to the Delware river?
June 19th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
eric,
I got the same thing from it, but I might be too much of a cynic myself.
June 19th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Matthew, I’m not sure. By my nature I question the motivation of politicians, and that goes double for their PR people.
June 19th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
I find fake patriotism annoying. I know Obama has to pretend to love America for political reason but don’t expect me to believe this crap.
June 19th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Some interesting omissions by Obama…
Here’s what the original story looked like before the parts in parentheses were airbrushed out of the picture:
“I’m Barack Obama. America is a country of strong families and strong values. My life’s been blessed by both. I was (born and) raised (in Hawaii) by a single mom (well, between the ages of 2 and 5; after my parents split up and before she remarried…then, when I was 6 we moved to Indonesia, where I lived with my mom and stepfather, and was I enrolled in an Islamic school and registered as a Muslim until I was 10) and (then, while my mom stayed in Indonesia to be with her second husband, I was raised by) my grandparents (back in Hawaii from the time I was in 5th grade until I left for college at 18). We didn’t have much money, but they taught me values straight from the Kansas heartland where they grew up (and not from some exotic multicultural island in the South Pacific or in Indonesia where “I was a little Jakarta street kid” who found the Muslim call to prayer in praise of Allah “one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.”)
June 19th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
The interesting thing is the choice of states. He seems to really think he can change the map. The most far-fetched one is Georgia. Georgia wouldn’t even vote to re-elect Max Cleland a few years ago. Do you think they’d even think about Obama? Obama is way more liberal than Cleland. An interesting stat: 8 of these 18 states were carried by Bob Dole.
June 19th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
yeah I heard he’s running this ad in France
June 19th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
I hate to sound like Dan Quayle, but why does our society always glorify single mothers? Why don’t we glorify two-parent families instead? Does any candidate run an ad saying, “I was raised by a married couple.”
June 19th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
Aron, part of the reason Obama didn’t have much money growing up was because of all the divorces and remarriages. He doesn’t mention that.
June 19th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
Many people don’t know that Obama had a white parent. This add remedies that.
June 20th, 2008 at 12:55 am
Very good ad…
June 20th, 2008 at 7:54 am
As an amateur student of politics I find this ad absolutely brilliant. The tone, pitch, message and images are perfect for an introduction ad. Notice there are no attacks, no images of war or struggle, but rather brightly lit small town America. The key words are family, country, values, hard work and self reliance. This ad could easily be run by any republican.
The images of his mother and grandparents are of course intended to educate voters that Obama is half white and was raised by whites. I see nothing wrong with this since its true.
Not to be too critical, but contrast this with McCain’s recent ad. The ad is dark for one thing and McCain is partly shaded. He begins his ad with what could be called an attack “only a fool loves or romatizes war.” The ads images are of war and death and its tone is rather pessimistic as it suggests more deaths in Iraq.
June 20th, 2008 at 8:55 am
Clarence,
Growing up in a one-parent family isn’t glorified, it is considered an obstacle overcome. That is how I see it in this ad.