The Half-Hour Obama Hour: What Will It Mean?

Why can't politicians help Americans WHILE it's campaigning, not just promising to do so after being elected? Like, I donno, spend half of its budget on supporting existing or new education new programs, providing food and shelter for homeless kids, or invest in start-up or underfunded renewable energy companies?

Which is worse - a half hour Obama infomercial or a Palin cameo on SNL? If we took the Hollywood out - I wonder what kind of election we might have. I agree with Merrick - put the money to better use... and leave the "advertising" to professionals.

Waste of Money!
Why? No one left to sway, he can't help himself significantly in other words... He's not that good on his feet (unlikely to be TiVo'd). His campaign team should have found some better use for the money.

Welcome my American friends to the total collapse of your freedom as you usher in a socialist government under the direction of a polished,wealthy
sneak, Obama Hussein Barrack.
Even his name sends shivers down my spine.
Bill Reilly
Windsor Canada

It means an industry that has been complaining because of dwindling budgets - just got a $3.5 Million dollar influx of cash! Besides the television executives and remaining staff just benefitted through this unprecedented amount of cash just shy of 11/4/08, then there are the citizens who may still feel the need to get to know Senator Obama before casting their vote. All in all, it's money well spent in this free for all media environment, and we know it was not paid for by lobbyist or special interest groups. By the way, I understand that if you don't like it - you can watch Nickolodean or Disney. Of course, there's always Blockbuster and NetFlix. However, I'm watching the Senator. From where I sit, he is one of the most refreshing, provocative thinker that I have witnessed in a very long time.

I suppose the $3.5 million could have been spent . . . hiring a telemarketing firm to jam the opposing party's Get Out the Vote efforts . . . oh, wait - that was already done in 2002 by the Republican party. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/17/opinion/17mon3.html?th

McCain & Palin are just bitter . . . that they can't afford to do the same.

Andy Cleary | Atlanta

I'm sorry, you're concerned that a man who may have a major impact on all of our lives is spending $3.5 million for 30 minutes to tell us why he should be elected President. Meanwhile, Budweiser spends $2.5 million to sell us beer in 30 seconds. Something's wrong with this world.

Bill O'Reilly - is that you??

Here's the fact of the matter:

Obama has so much money, he has to find ways to spend it before election day. If you've got the cash, why not?

It's also a little bit back to the future. In the 70s and 80s the 30-minute candidate "film" was a staple of campaigns.

Vinny

Dear Ira,

The Half-Hour Obama Hour: What Will It Mean? It means that this is the model to be used in the future for all political campaigns. It was a good time slot, and a good closer.

Moreover, the campaign itself was flawless branding and brand building. The reality is that somehow the press climbed all over Palin stating she is not prepared to be president while Obama with less experience then her is about to be crowned president by the people. This is great promotion and branding.

The final lesson is that local market tactics are no substitute for a strategic campaign and sticking to it, then using spot tactical messages to counter the opponent, not losing sight of the overall strategy.

The half hour was vintage Clinton I feel your pain, and then a cohesive and coherent statement of purpose of how he will 'fix' what he has characterized as broken. So thorough, I even believe McCain is just a Bush retread because of his inability to counter it and not to respond with his true position. Convincing everyone that the Bush administration was broken was strategy number two after convincing everyone that Obama was a credible candidate. Then it was to attack the present administration and tie McCain to it. Footage of McCain boasting about his record tied to Bush TVC are priceless. The final knife in his back: the economy. Big oil, Wall Street, and Big Business must all be Democrats who colluded to destroy McCain. Take about timing. Could it have been designed to make McCain look better? That when in a crisis who do you want as a leader - a trainee or an experienced leader. It looks as though we want the trainee.

Now all that is left is to hold on to your hats and wait and see. Will Obama be a stooge for the Military Industrial Complex and have us fighting in endless wars like the Bush administration did? Will we get new super-weapons to enable us to destroy the entire universe -- or just an elegant mouthpiece for the real Democratic power?

Let's hope Obama doesn't have a hidden chip on his shoulder like the Son of Bush did. And let's hope that his unspoken agenda is too socialistic.

Finally, after viewing the McCain campaign and watching it unravel, I am beginning to agree with the Time's Krugman: Republicans: the party of stupid. Stupidity enabled the Democrats to do the impossible: elect an inexperienced unknown commodity to the top spot. It's an amazing story that will get Obama a spot on Mt. Rushmore and change forever how political campaigns are conducted: money and more money, and New Media for fund-raising.

In the end I wonder had he a Romney or one of the others on the ticket, would it have played out this way? Only a divine miracle or incredible cheating can save him now.

I voted last week. I voted NOT McCain.
Obama is simply unproven. McCain is totally whack.
Perhaps Mr Obama can use the internet to collect enough CHANGE to pay off the enourmous public debt.
Perhaps Mr Obama will have a weekly or maybe even daily Presidential reality TV show, now that he has brodcast his pilot.
This all reminds me of the new MAC ad where PC is putting all his money into advertising instead of fixing the the problems with his product.

B.L.
http://SoIWroteThisBook.com