Film spotlights voters who have turned on Obama

(File/Marc Piscotty/Getty Images)

This article originally appeared on RealClearPolitics.

(CBS News) A provocative new film spotlighting Democrats and independents who say they voted for Barack Obama in 2008 but have since turned on the president is set to debut at the Republican National Convention in Tampa next week.

Titled "The Hope and the Change," the anti-Obama film was jointly financed by Citizens United and Victory Film Group -- the production company helmed by conservative filmmaker Stephen K. Bannon.

This is the first presidential election in which Citizens United was able to produce a film about a candidate after the conservative advocacy group's lawsuit to air a 2008 campaign movie about Hillary Clinton made it to the Supreme Court in 2010.

The court's momentous 5-4 decision that year led to the birth of super PACs and the overhaul of the campaign finance system.

"This film, in my opinion, is the definition of what the Reagan coalition was," said Citizens United President David Bossie. "The Reagan coalition was obviously Republicans, but it was Democrats and independents, too, who wanted American exceptionalism and wanted to believe and have hope."

Before its full premiere next week and subsequent showing at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., Bannon plans to preview the film during an hour-long special scheduled to air on the Fox News Channel on Friday night.

The 64-minute documentary opens with footage of Obama supporters reacting ecstatically to his victory on Election Night in 2008. Pro-Obama commentary from an array of cable news hosts and celebrities is then intercut with clips of the 40 focus-group-tested non-Republican interviewees, 25 of whom are women.

All of those interviewed hail from key districts in seven swing states, according to Bannon and Bossie, and many of them are shown recalling the excitement they felt in voting for the Democrat four years ago.

"He is just a charismatic individual who I saw as a knight in shining armor -- someone who came out of nowhere and was going to, you know, take my vote," one woman says.

The film's mood and accompanying musical score quickly turn dark, as the interviewees express regret for their votes and disappointment with the country's direction under the president.

"Obama's a great con artist," one of them says.

Bannon set to work on the film last October, shortly after former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announced that she would not run for president in 2012. "The Hope and the Change" keeps with the rabble-rousing style that the filmmaker employed in his previous works, including last year's pro-Palin documentary, "The Undefeated."

After the festivities and positive sentiments surrounding Obama's inauguration are shown, the movie veers back in time to the near-collapse of the financial sector in the fall of 2008 but does not clarify that those events took place before the current president took office.

"The American investment bank Lehman Brothers has filed for bankruptcy," reports a Sky News anchor in an event that occurred in September 2008 but appears in the movie after Obama is shown being sworn in by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.

The film next features a photograph of Obama sitting with cabinet members in the White House juxtaposed with footage surrounding the bailout of Citigroup -- an event that also occurred under the direction of the Bush administration.

But several of the interviewees in the film appear to mistakenly believe that government actions such as the TARP program and Citigroup bailout were initiated by Obama, rather than his predecessor.

After a clip from a CBS News report on the November 2008 Citigroup bailout is shown, an interviewee says, "I tried to put on a positive face to that and say, 'Well, the president is on the inside of that and knows hopefully a lot more about this, has advisers, so I'm not going to judge too harshly here,' but it is concerning."

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[GOP-R--Con-Men]

Romney is rich but morally bankrupt. How do you expalin his constant lies about President Obama's record? Romney doesn't give a damn about ordinary Americans.

[GOP-R--Con-Men]

And we know these people are former Obama supporters how? Because anti Obama GOP RNC sez so?

[obgyn33]

Shame on you CBS. I have always been a loyal viewer and believed CBS stood out above the rest. CBS allowed Norah O'Donnell to deceive viewers by reporting on the campaign and President Obama when she is clearly biased because her husband Dan Senor, works for Romney and Ryan's campaign. Each time she talks about or scrutinize the campaign CBS should disclose to the viewers her very close relationship with the Romney Campaign. I don't expect O'Donnell to be honest, I expected CBS to be. Shame on you CBS, I am truly disappointed.

[BuckeyeChuck]

If they want to know why Obama has not fully fulled his exceptions maybe they should think of Mitch McConnell and the hate America republicans.

[matt6052]

Do such voters consider themselves to be disloyal, like an attack dog that "turns" on its master and attacks it?

Although the film may be political, some people still look to the media to be fair in its description of the voters featured. The use of the words "turned on Obama" causes a reader to think that a supporter betrayed the president.

Why not say "gave up on Obama" or "lost confidence in Obama" or "have changed their minds about Obama"? These descriptions might better fit how such voters describe their own journey from Obama supporter to Romney supporter.

Former Obama supporters described as vicious animals. Sad times.

[marychgo]

Are members of the 2008 "Hope and Change" brigade disappointed? Sure. Does that mean we're dumb enough to believe that four years of "voodoo economics" from the Spoiled Fratboy ticket is going to solve our problems? Hell, no!

[qyeteye]

Do you know who coined the term "voodoo economics" and why? Are you aware that voodoo economic theory actually won out - long before you may have been a lustful thought?

And since time the nation observed the voodoo, deficit-spending/lower tax margins for the wealthy/etc. even after the voodoo-in-chief's budget director denounced the economic policy as a destructive myth.

This all happened long before Obama was in the White House.

The voodoo result is a 30 year increasing wealth gap (40-1 to over 400-1 CEO pay, a significant 1% increase in national wealth holdings, etc.) benefiting a relative few paid for by the majority of the nation's citizens (non-Romney tax structures, stagnant and/or falling wages, higher cost-of-living, etc.).

Most likely the likes of you get caught in today's winds of propaganda and act to tribal vote for those that enable those trends.

Think about it!

[vernique3]

Billionaire propaganda for working and middle class sheeple who do not know they are voting against their own economic interest.

[CaptainSmollett]

Obama ran on hope.
Now he has a record of failure.
It is no wonder that the folks are turning against him.
What rational person would want four more years of misery and broken promises?

[CaptainSmollett]

If Obama is the Messiah of the working-class, why has the working-class been so decimated under Obama's administration?

Poverty has INCREASED and jobs are non-existent. Obama is not our champion, he is our Pied Piper.

[qyeteye]

Where were you during the last 30 years when CEP to worker pay ratio went from 40-1 to over 400-1?

Were you waiting for the trickle-down myth to arrive while the trickle-up reality occurred?

You have heard of the Great Recession and what the impact was to the nation?

You have noticed a do nothing, block & blame, just say no, coup-by-filibuster congress getting record low ratings because they are focused on creating Presidential failure to gain political success instead of helping and the President achieve success.

You have a lot of catching up to do.

[bbinfla]

Of course "fair and balanced" fox is going to show it. Sorry to see CBS is allowing some of its footage to be wrongly applied to this farce.

[obgyn33]

Shame on you CBS. I have always been a loyal viewer and believed CBS stood out above the rest. CBS allowed Norah O'Donnell to deceive viewers by reporting on the campaign and President Obama when she is clearly biased because her husband Dan Senor, works for Romney and Ryan's campaign. Each time she talks about or scrutinize the campaign CBS should disclose to the viewers her very close relationship with the Romney Campaign. I don't expect O'Donnell to be honest, I expected CBS to be. Shame on you CBS, I am truly disappointed.