If you guys are like me, and I know you are, you’re eagerly anticipating Obama’s thirty minute spot tonight and highly curious about its contents. In typical Obama fashion, his campaign has managed to keep tight lips about the ad buy, so the speculation abounds.
We’ve witnessed the friendly criticism on the left (e.g., "You're going to be on all the TV? Are you going to interrupt my TV?"—Malia Obama), and we’ve seen the hysterical presumptions by the right (e.g., "It’s a victory lap!," "Give Joe the Plumber a chance to vote!"). Regardless of the ad’s contents, though, we’ve all learned by now to trust Obama’s stewardship, a luxury that’s probably the envy of the few remaining thinking Republicans.
But how are members of the traditional media digesting this total usurp of their inanity-echo chamber?
It’s giving some of them gas. Take the Politico (no, take it, please), for example, which attempts to resuscitate the epically failed and widely rejected "elitist" and "rockstar" labels:
While Obama hasn’t made many strategic mistakes in his campaign against Republican John McCain, he has, on occasion, shown a weakness for extravagance.
Apparently, the ad buy has sparked the author’s chagrin over Obama’s transatlantic-thawing Berlin speech (The horror of Europeans waving American flags! What will Joe the plumber think?), his seminal DNC acceptance speech (How dare he deliver a victory speech on the heels of clinching the nomination!), the unprecedented extent of campaign commercials he’s running in battleground states (What’s he trying to do, win? Doesn’t he know his place?) and tonight’s ad.
"Is it overkill?," Jeanne Cummings inquires. Let’s ask one of her trusty GOP hacks:
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."
There Obama goes again, overachieving. The nerve of that guy.
Of course, Obama’s real strategy is not to rub victory in the flailing McCain campaign’s noses. It’s to ensure that victory occurs at all. Some might call it "closing the deal":
"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.
And at least one thinking political analyst sees another benefit—one that the Obama campaign has been masterful at seizing: control of the news cycle. According to this analyst:
"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 article goes on to dutifully note that Obama might be turning off real Americans™ who are married to their usual Wednesday night broadcast. Something tells me most of them won’t be voting for Obama anyway.
Beyond the politico article, the press is curiously absent in its pre-coverage of Obama’s evening ad spot. Even the AP, highlighting the Obama campaign's remarkable ability to keep a secret, is short on details. But it did provide this juicy tidbit:
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A half-hour Barack Obama campaign ad will blanket the major broadcast networks Wednesday night — except for ABC.
Attempting to protect its struggling Wednesday lineup, ABC tried to reach an agreement with the Obama campaign to air the commercial on a different night, according to people familiar with the discussions who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.
ABC had a change of heart, but by the time it decided to make the 8 p.m. EDT Wednesday slot available for the Democratic presidential candidate's spot, his campaign had already finalized the ad buy, the people said. ABC will air an episode of the hourlong "Pushing Daisies" at that time as scheduled.
Haha. Pushing daisy’s indeed. Ain’t Karma a bitch, ABC?
Update: Here's a preview from the Times courtesy of David Mizner in the comments:
The trailer is heavy in strings, flags, presidential imagery and some Americana filmed by Davis Guggenheim, whose father was the campaign documentarian of Robert F. Kennedy. As the screen flashes scenes of suburban lawns, a freight train and Mr. Obama seated at a kitchen table with a group of white, apparently working-class voters, Mr. Obama says: "We’ve seen over the last eight years how decisions by a president can have a profound effect on the course of history and on American lives; much that’s wrong with our country goes back even farther than that."
Then, while standing before a stately desk and an American flag, Mr. Obama, in a suit, says: "We’ve been talking about the same problems for decades and nothing is ever done to solve them. For the past 20 months, I’ve traveled the length of this country, and Michelle and I have met so many Americans who are looking for real and lasting change that makes a difference in their lives."
Jim Margolis, Mr. Obama’s senior advertising strategist, said the program would then go on to feature "the stories of four different Americans, or American families, and kind of what they’re confronting."
Click on David Mizner here for the rest.