August 25, 2008
Let's look at the new Obama ad.
Nicely done. I'm glad to see the return of the light touch.
The source material is the great old Sam Cooke song "What a Wonderful World," and you can hear it on this video, which, like the new ad, has a political theme:
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29 comments:
I agree, it gives off a sense of humor at least.
I don't know much, but I do know that I trust leaders who know what they don't know and are willing to ask for expert advice over leaders who think they know what they really don't know even though they have no previous track record in the area of expertise that they claim to know oh so well.
(and given stated policy goals on the economy, Obama seems convinced that finally, despite all the other failed attempts, a socialism-lite class warfare-based economic policy is really going to kick ass this time)
McCain is likely going to bring in actual business people in to the decisionmaking process, Obama is likely to ask his friends in the Senate and a bunch of Ivory Tower types what they think.
Which group do you think will give better advice?
Which group do you think will give better advice?
Depends if Carly Fiorina is in the first group.
XWL: I'm looking for a leader who doesn't paint people with broad brush strokes. One who recognizes that there are bright people with relevant expertise in business, academia, and government. I'm also looking for someone who has the capacity to understand what the experts are saying. Between Obama and McCain I don't see this as a deciding factor. I also hope neither writes off "ivory tower types" the way you just did.
"a socialism-lite class warfare-based economic policy"
Well, I sure hope that guy doesn't win. Good thing no major candidate is actually proposing anything that looks like that.
Really impressively short.
I'm serious. Most political ads go on too long. Words (lyrics) and images align really well in this one.
No. 1: that was a light touch?
No. 2: If you're Barack Obama, why hire the James Taylor soundalike? Why not just get the real deal? It's not like he's not on board.
Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaame.
Less poetry in motion than desparation in motion.
Clever, but a waste of money. This ad is right out of the 1932 campaign.
A voter's view of the economy is extremely personal. It's how they're doing, not what they're hearing on the news. It worked in '32 because every family had someone who was out of a job. Get the people who lost a job this year or had a foreclosure, add in the left handed aleuts and a couple of other groups like that and you've got a good chance of getting elected dogcatcher in Elmsville.
I've been listening to the Democrats songbook for about 60 years. "The rich get rich and the poor get poorer". "The President is a dummy and the Attorney General is a crook".
For a Party that calls itself progressive they don't seem to come up with much in the way of new slogans.
I prefer the version in the movie "Witness" where
Harrison Ford sang it to Kelly MacGillis as he was repairing the car in the barn.
Harrison Ford. What a wonderful piece of manflesh. So wasted on that waif, Miss Flockhart.
Does Obama really want to bring up who doesn't know much about history?
The ad is o.k., in the vein of but not as good as McCain's snarky ads about "the One", Paris Hilton, etc., but perhaps with practice the Obama campaign will come up with something better (it's not that there's not enough good material on McCain with which to fashion such ads, certainly).
The ad's chief failing is below the quote. Here they are, using a quote that's getting on towards a year old by election time, and that has since been pretty loudly refuted by the headlines guys like Phil Gramm (of that old Gramm Rudman Hollings "balanced budget amendment" legislation fame) have generated. Maybe not all good headlines (certainly not in Gramm's case), but most people may only come away from that kind of news in July with, "Oh, so McCain's got Phil Gramm and the responsible-spending crowd advising him". What's wrong with that, exactly?
Obama needs fresher, newer material. It may be to his misfortune (and I said "may" because I'm not super-familiar with all the timelines, only general impressions, so have mercy) that as he's increasingly gaffed from fatigue, McCain has increasingly sharpened his rhetoric and value proposition, which would make it difficult to pull of something that can't be dismissed as "old news" by the McCain team.
Should be a good couple of weeks' worth of broadcast (and especially) online adverts from the campaigns, though!
"pull of something" ought to read "pull something off".
dammit!
All I pulled out of it was how people like Churchill, Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Einstein, et al. defeated evil like Khrushchev, Stalin, Hitler, and the inherent evil that exists in Socialism and Communism.
Well, and I was just thinking about how the genius Stevenson was beaten twice by that dunce Eisenhower...
In the first video all I surmised was that Obama was trying to win an election against Bush but trying to attach guilt by association with regards to the economic foibles of John McCain's own admission that he isn't as strong on economic policies as he should be. However, I haven't heard dick on Mr. Barely's socialist/communist agendas either. Oh sorry, hope and change and change and hope, but not what hoping that the kind of change this buffoon tries to install will actually take this country in a direction no one will like.
Obama's economic credentials are what again? Oh, that's right he taught ConLaw (never practiced), wrote an essay or two, and something else I can't seem to remember. Nice job Mr. Barely, you've illustrated to me that you are no where near the man for this job. Why don't you go do another books on tape and call it The Audacity of My Arrogance by Mr. Barely Obama (african accents included).
I'm just waiting for one of McCain's people to say that it's okay for him not to know anything about economics because he was in a cell in Hanoi...it seems to be the only thing we're supposed to know about him.
At some point McCain is going to have to tell people who he is and what he believes...the problem is if he does that half his base stays home.
Poor John, he just should have run as an independent in 2000 and saved himself this nightmare of running as the head of a party whose talking heads secretly (and not so) hate him.
Where'd that maverick go?
Actually, here's what it also made me think of:
Animal House. (I couldn't find the food fight scene on Youtube, sadly.)
But it made me think of Bluto.
Which then also made me think of Otter's defence.
Which is probably what my guy's going to be reduced to putting up, by the end of the campaign season. :p (I think it'll work.)
Deep musings to follow: That old Sam Cooke song is very evocative. particularly with those movies of the leaders of that era, strutting and fretting. It put me in mind of an anecdote related by Herodotus. The Persian Emperor reviewed the troops, some 50,000, before him. He turned to his counselor and said that is is sad to observe that within fifty years all these men will be dead. The advisor replied that it was even sadder to contemplate that brief as life is each of the men before him would wish for death many times before he died....I would go the advisor one better: brief and wretched though our existence is, we take so much pride in inflicting pain on others before our death....The Sam Cooke song is a comfort.
I'm just waiting for one of McCain's people to say that it's okay for him not to know anything about economics
Has he said he doesn't know anything about economics? In the ad quote he just said he hasn't understood economics as well as he should.
It is safe to say that neither candidate understands economics as well as he should. :)
John McCain says that he "doesn't understand economics as well as he should." Yet he is married to someone rich and talented at maintaining their wealth.
Which is all the proof that one needs that he knows where to look when he wants something done right.
Even Clinton governed by playing Republican/conservative rules on the economy. When has Biden / Obama EVER done anything close to that?
Hint: rhymes with "sever".
And yet, masses of walking American human stupidity will walk blindly and gullibly to a voting booth and pull the lever "for the economy" in the biggest bait-and-switch con the history of the United States.
REPORT CARD
Chicago School District
Teacher: Mrs. Henderson
Student: Samuel Cooke
History ........... D+
Biology ............D-
Science ............D-
French .............F
Geography .......F
Trigonometry ...F-
Algebra ............F
Comments: Samuel is a very poor student, although he mixes well with others he appears to have little interest in learning. Samuel needs to learn to apply himself more and to stop fantasizing about music and singing.
It seems like a pro-McCain ad to me.
They didn't consider that some people don't hate Bush, don't think the economy is in the tank, and the other bizarre news channel themes that have been running.
Those people see the ad differently.
Those of us who grew up on The Wizard of Oz know that those who think they aren't, really are. So when did they stop showing the movie every Thanksgiving evening?
They didn't consider that some people don't hate Bush, don't think the economy is in the tank, and the other bizarre news channel themes that have been running.
Yeah, but that delusional 29% of the electorate wouldn't vote for Obama if he was the last man on the planet.
I still can't believe that I'm the only person in this thread who thought of Bluto.
We're taking this election too serious.
Meanwhile, in non-lame commercial land...
Maybe this means that McCain does realize the opportunity he has here.
Dear Folks,
Same song, different perspective.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2ho19VbOiU
Any opinions?
Regards,
Roy
Wait, the guy who wanted to increase the capital gains tax even though it would result in less revenue--out of fairness--is going to talk economics?
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