Barack Obama American Stories Recap

Full video of Barack Obama's half-hour commercial/mini-documentary broadcast on Wednesday, October 29, 2008, 8pm on BET, CBS, Fox, MSNBC, NBC, Univision, and TV One.

Commentary from former Clinton Aide, Howard Wolfson:

Let's quickly dispense with the silly spin from the McCain campaign and the notion that Senator Obama's infomercial might somehow be overkill or extravagant--there isn't a campaign anywhere that wouldn't want to be able to afford thirty minutes of network time a week before the election to make a final pitch to undecided voters.

And this ad was clearly aimed at those voters still deciding--it effectively interspersed geographically and ethnically diverse tales of middle class hardship, narrated sympathetically by Barack Obama, with specific policy details about how an Obama Administration would address the problems confronting American families. [...]

This ad won't win Senator Obama the election--he was going to win in any case. But it was a highly effective, well-produced and well-executed closing argument. And at a time when the McCain campaign is doing everything it can to knock Senator Obama off his game, it's another example of how and why that task is so difficult.

Barack Obama American Stories Airs Tonight

In a move which smacks of "screw you John McCain, I have more money than you", Barack Obama will air half-hour long informercial tonight during the pregame of the World Series Game 5/6. The buy cost $3 million, and after a record-breaking $150 million month in September, the Obama for America campaign feels justified that there is no such thing as too much publicity when you're running for President of the US. Unlike the past couple Democratic Presidential candidates, Obama has learned that even when leading your opponent in polling in the last week of the election season you can never coast into an election lest you are doomed to failure by overconfidence.

For more information, check out Huffington Post's article, "Obama's Prime Time TV Commercial: A Preview", and of course tune in tonight to CBS, NBC, Fox, BET, MSNBC, Univision & TV One at 8:00pm EST to watch "Barack Obama: American Stories". This made-for-TV event is part infomercial and part testimonial, will primarily feature vignettes of people and families whom Obama has met during his nearly two-year campaign, and will include a live component from a campaign rally in Florida at the very end of the show. The show may also feature American leaders talking about why Obama is the right leader for the USA at this time.