Two videos from yesterday continue to leave their mark on me, today. The first was Obama's 2-minute ad on the economic crisis, which apparently aired in certain markets in the midwest, and which was thoroughly discussed yesterday here. Its a great spot, if you haven't seen it. But what really put the Obama ad in perspective for me was Tweety's rant yesterday at the expense of Repo Congressman Cantor of Virginia: "Where is the President?"It actually made me wonder whether Tweety had the Obama ad in mind when he was going off on Cantor. Because I sure did.
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As others pointed out yesterday, the Obama ad had the look and feel of a presidential address to the nation -- a serious person talking about serious issues, facing up to the problem, promising action, and offering hope. And in that ad, as well as in Tweety's question, lies an electoral goldmine.
Americans were just scared on Monday. Today, many are either terrified or numb. The truth is setting in-- that this is probably going to be bad for a long time, and no one really knows what to do. In that vacuum lies opportunity. I believe the candidate who steps into the void apparently vacated by Bush, and who acts like a President for the next few weeks, will in fact be our next president.
You have to hand it to our candidate and to the folks advising him. The timing and tone of this piece were impeccable. My hope, now, is that Obama has (or soon produces) a stable of these ads that he can run out, once a week, for the next month. Many have already noted how his 2-minute talk resonated with the fireside chats of another, similar episode in our history.
We obviously do not presently have a President who feels the need to offer any assurances, let alone plans for dealing with the present crisis. And McCain is clueless. But if Obama can continue to assume this role and act presidential, I believe that many of the fencesitters -- the people that kinda sorta know he probably ought to be President but can't quite make their way over the fence just yet -- will get very comfortable with the idea by election day. We are starting to see this already among prominent republicans, like Senator Hagel (and even Ben Stein!) who say everything but "I support Obama." Imagine how many americans are at exactly that place.
These ads obviously cost a lot of money. Two minutes of time in major markets is enormously expensive, and the campaign has already promised to spend $39 million in Florida, alone. And I'm not saying that Obama should in way ditch the short spots that are already running all over the country, and that make the bullet-points on healthcare, social security, taxes, and Iraq. These are necessary to combat McCain's lies. But lets also make sure that Obama has the funds to go forward with more of these longer, presidential ads in every state that matters. Give, and then give again.