Oct 29, 2008
Obama Infomercial: Smart Or Overkill?
Politico: Strategy Could Backfire If 30-Minute Multi-Network Airtime Is Seen As Excessive
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Barack Obama will go on national television tonight and air a 30-minute infomercial about himself and his presidential campaign.
Several political image makers, both Republicans and Democrats, say it’s a smart move. But is there a risk of excess in it, as well?
While Obama hasn’t made many strategic mistakes in his campaign against Republican John McCain, he has, on occasion, shown a weakness for extravagance.
In July, Obama’s visits to Afghanistan and Iraq generated comforting images of the senator with military leaders and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. But his trip ended in Berlin with an image of 200,000 fans, mostly Europeans, chanting Obama’s name.
In August, his campaign navigated the minefield of the Democratic Party’s feuding families to pull off a convention that began healing the wounds between the Clinton and Obama camps. Then it came to its conclusion between two Greek columns where a triumphant Obama delivered an acceptance speech to a football stadium crowd of more than 80,000.
Today, Obama is dominating the television ad wars. As of Oct. 22, Obama placed 150% more ads than McCain in Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia, according to the Nielsen Co.
Despite all that, and despite his lead in national and most battleground polls, the campaign decided to plunk down between $3 and $5 million to buy half-hour blocks of time at 8 p.m. tonight on NBC, CBS, FOX, Univision, BET, MSNBC and TV One for delivery of his final argument to the voters.
Could it seem to some voters like overkill?
Republican political strategist Alex Castellanos says that it might. But even his advice is to go for it.
“It’s like football,” says Castellanos. “People may complain that a team is running up the score, but that team is still the one that wins.”
The Obama campaign scoffs at the idea that the infomercial is more luxury than necessity. This is, after all, a campaign scarred by its stunningly lopsided loss in the New Hampshire primary after polls had shown double-digit leads.
On the campaign trail, Obama’s warnings against complacency are taking on increasingly urgent tones. He has vowed to finish the race on offense and the infomercial is a part of that strategy, say advisers.
“With this historic election only a week away - and John McCain’s angry, desperate attacks mounting by the day - we want to make sure every voter heading into the voting booth knows exactly what Barack Obama would do to bring about fundamental change as president,” a campaign statement noted.
Jim Jordan, a Democratic strategist, says the broadcast is timed to sway late breaking, undecided voters who can often tighten or determine a close race in the final days.
“There is a discrete segment of the electorate, primarily female, who are late deciders. They care about policy and elections, but they are very, very busy. They actively tune it out until the last week or ten days. Then they go and seek and acquire information,” he says.
The trick, of course, is getting them to watch rather than click away to ABC, the lone major network that won’t air the infomercial, or to some other Obama-free cable TV station.
Politicians have had mixed success at that in the past.
Before this year’s Super Tuesday primary, Democrat Hillary Clinton broadcast a live town hall meeting on the Hallmark Channel. It was watched by 540,000 households or about 705,000 viewers, according to the Nielsen ratings.
A better parallel to Obama’s strategy could be Independent candidate H. Ross Perot, who aired 15 infomercials in the 1992 presidential campaign.
Perot’s programs drew an average audience of 11.6 million viewers, or 4.6 percent of viewers nationwide, according to Nielsen. His one simulcast on ABC and CBS on Nov. 2, 1992 attracted 26 million viewers, Nielsen found.
Ken Golstein, director of the Wisconsin Advertising Project, said Obama may not draw as large an audience as Perot.
“Ross Perot was sort of new on the scene. People hadn’t heard of him,” said Goldstein. “I’d be surprised if there are a lot of undecided eyes or passive viewers watching the Obama video. It could be a lot of Obama house parties.”
But Goldstein and Evan Tracey, founder of Campaign Media Analysis Group, which tracks political advertising, said the real benefit to Obama could be simply the attention the infomercial draws from the mainstream press.
“It probably locks up 24 hours of the news cycle,” said Tracey. “It’s going to suck a lot of oxygen out of the room.”
Adds Goldstein: “John McCain’s only chance is to disqualify Barack Obama. He has seven days. Every day that people are talking about Barack Obama’s infomercial is a day that John McCain isn’t getting his message out.”
The biggest risk in airing the infomercials, according to the strategists, is that Obama could irritate people by interrupting their regular television viewing habits.
Joe Lockhart, a Democratic strategist, says that is less of a risk today given the hundreds of television shows to watch at any given hour.
“If this was 30 years ago, you’d be running a big risk that people who don’t want to watch it would be mad,” says Lockhart.
“The benefit is you get to make your closing argument in a dramatic way without the filter of the media. It gives you more context and texture than a 30-second or 60-second ad,” he adds.
Mike Murphy, a Republican strategist who was once a McCain adviser, agrees. “I don’t see any risk at all,” he said in an e-mail. “I’ve been urging McCain high command to do a TV show too, but….”
McCain, of course, could air his own show. Under federal law, if he sought to buy equal time, the networks would be required to sell it to him.
His problem is money. Unlike Obama, who has collected more donations than any other general election presidential candidate, McCain would be forced to pull money from a battleground state in order to pay for the national infomercial.
It’s that imbalance in resources that might touch the overkill nerve in some viewers and voters.
But Goldstein can’t imagine such a worry is even a factor in the Obama camp.
“Campaigns tend not to worry about overkill,” he says. “Campaigns, by definition, are overkill.”
By Jeanne Cummings
Copyright 2008 POLITICO
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See all 250 CommentsYour rules of engagement are great! I trust that any comment that is within the stated rules will not removed because of some party preference....
Mccain, Bush, and the rest of the GOP-
Managed to take Clinton''s surplus,
And 8 years later they replaced it with:
Bigger Gov''t --
Though they promised Smaller Govt-
Greater Debt-
Though they promised fiscal responsibility-
The largest Trade Deficit in history-
Outsourcing millions of US jobs
Then they Pulled a Commie Chavez move
Nationalizing Fannie and Freddie
Then Socialization of our Financial Institutions-
With Billions in tax payer paid bailouts-
Institutional Welfare for Wall Street Incompetents-
War in Iraq and Afghanistan
Costing us 10 Billion + a month
Ridicule throughout the world--
But they did give Tax breaks and incentives to:
The upper 3% -
To Big Oil,
And the GOP Defense Conglomerates--
The Choice is Astonishingly Clear---
VOTE GOP
VOTE MCSAME
CONTINUE THE BUSH LEGACY
FOUR MORE GLORIOUS YEARS
OF GOP BS
Most people are just sick of politics as usual, and this is the only way they think they can send a message.
There''s never anything good on the major networks anyway, except football and 2 1/2 Men. Otherwise I never watch.
By Groupthink
9/27/2008, 12:39 am
As a glorious preview of improvements to political freedoms in an Obama administration, his campaign directed the third phase for the Current Truth Squads'' assault on counterrevolutionary holdouts: Legal Stormtruthers. A group of high-ranking Missouri apparatchiks - including St. Louis sheriffs and top prosecutors - are threatening to target anyone they determine is contradicting the Current Truth%u2122 about their chosen candidate for President. "This is the radical change we''ve been waiting for, and there''s more where it came from," commented the local Truth Squad Standartenfuehrer on condition of anonymity. http://thepeoplescube.com/red/viewtopic.php?t=2378
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Posted by scb1111_1 at 01:49 PM : Oct 29, 2008
70%?
Not 69% or 71%?
Wow, are you ever Informative!!!!
And Specific!!!!
And Accurate!!!!
Please!!!! Tell me how to Vote!!!!
By Red Square
9/23/2008, 11:54 pm
A group of McCain-Palin supporters dare to march through the Upper West Side - and are met with hatred and rage for being infidels in the heart of liberal Mecca. Republicans are as out of place there as elephants at a donkey show. Area intellectuals jeer them well - just as they had been taught to do. FACT: The number of middle fingers in the "progressive" crowd is directly proportional to the number of PhD degrees in the ten-block radius.
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQalRPQ8stI
~
Special thanks to our friend Red Squirrel for filming it at the McCain-Palin march on the Upper West Side in Manhattan this Sunday, September 21. Musical credits - When Johnny Comes Marching Home performed by US Military Academy Band.
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Posted by scb1111_1 at 01:57 PM : Oct 29, 2008
Say it three times while clicking the heals of your ruby slippers.
And you people who vote for him or support him are stupid enough to follow his every word. Hopefully he will tell you to jump off a bridge because I am sure you will all go right over!
I gave Obama over $200 during this camapign and I think it is a brilliant way to spend "my" money.
Better than going on a shopping spree for clothes.
I can answer that unless of course if you live off of the government! Let me explain it as simple as I can OBAMA is going to take your money and give it to someone who doesn''t work, doesn''t care to work, and would only work if McCain get elected! Simple or do you need more clairification?
You are a prime example of why I would never vote Democrat you are so cocky nothing is over until it is over. Must you be soooo mean to everyone. The last I checked (at least unless Obama get elected) this is a FREE country and ANYONE has the right to voice their opinion. Yours (contrary to your believe) is not the only one that matters.
I forgot to let you know that I guess in some way all of us Republicans has donated to Obama because I am sure that everyone donated money are donating our hardworking tax dollars that are paid to you in welfare!
THEY WON"T BECAUSE ALL THEY SEE IF BLACK SO WHO IS STUPID!
We need to continue the accomplishments made by the Republicans these last eight years...
or
If you don''t want things to change, vote for us...
or
You can trust the Republican Party to Continue to...
Instead, you hear from these two:
Obama is a socialist/communist/muslim/leftist/taxing/freedom hating blah blah blah.
The Republicans Slogan this year should be...
Don''t like what we''ve done these last eight years,
Elect us again and we''ll promise to do it different.
As the saying goes,
The definition of Stupidity is doing the same thing repeatedly while expecting a different result.
Bay of pigs, Berlin wall, Cuba Missile crisis, Vietnam, US Steel (Ummm area now called rust belt), VP Johnson, civil war riots, The "Projects", five generations of welfare. 3/10 black families broken when he took office now 9/10, No. one killer of young black men is other young black men thanks to socialism...... Ahh the left they never want to face up to their failures!
Gergen: Now, one of the most effective popular programs we''ve had in the last three decades. It''s called the earned income tax credit. It''s a program whereby, if you''re a working person, a working couple and you''re below the poverty line, the government will actually give you money. That''s a redistributed program. It''s a program which takes money from the upper classes and gives it to the lower -- to the working poor.
Now who started that program? The earned income tax credit? Ronald Reagan. It was one of the -- it was an achievement of the Reagan administration that Bill Clinton then built on.
The Republican Party has been dancing on Reagan''s bones for some time now as THE conservative to emulate. Well, he did raise taxes when he had too and after this tidbit of information I guess he''s just a typical socialist after all.
You don''t get it this article says the WORKING POOR there is a difference between people trying to make theirselves better and lazy tail people that don''t work at all except to drive to the social service office and pick up their welfare check and food stamps.
NO THANKS TO OBAMA PLAN
I think I will vote to keep the money I work for.
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Posted by befair1265
I wonder which Party Skinheads normally identify themselves as?
As for McBush Palin.........Sorry for your Loss, please give my regards to Juno.
From the beautiful city of Los Angeles, CA where we are also PATRIOTICS
Republican economic plan (trickle down) does not work...if the republicans had any clue on this issue we wouldn''t be suffering the economic meltdown that we now have. Modern republicans are now sadly out of touch with the average American and the problems that effect their lives.
In a closely fought presidential campaign, at least as the media says it; with so much implications down ticket, there''s no word like overkill. To take a title away from a champion in a boxing match, in this case the GOP, you almost always have to knock him out. Otherwise some incompetent or malicious electoral boards somewhere, I mean, referee, may still it away from you.
Besides, if the financial advantage were reversed, none of these nutjobs would have any problems with McCain running these ads and running up the score.
http://mrsmart.wordpress.com
Posted by mytoosense at 02:25 PM : Oct 29, 2008
The same one as Ashley Todd...
Then I can''t understand why for the life of me would you vote for Obama and let him take your money and give it to other people who don''t work because that is exactly what you are voting for. So let''s see who would be the STUPID one apparantly they didn''t teach you 2+2 in college
I meant, steal.
Republican economic plan (trickle down) does not work...if the republicans had any clue on this issue we wouldn''''t be suffering the economic meltdown that we now have. Modern republicans are now sadly out of touch with the average American and the problems that effect their lives.
And another Ditto Head is Born...
BOYCOTT OBAMA''S PROPAGANDA MEDIA! Use that 30 minutes to read,play a game,or use the internet.Let''s let Obama know he can''t buy out vote no matter how many places he plasters his face.Isn''t anyone else disturbed by his poster with a half red/half blue coloring that looks like a dictator?The first time I saw it,I got the chills.
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