Big-spender Obama ahead of the game with 30-minute ad
obama, obama ad, obama 30 minute, obama 30 minute commercial, obama ads BARACK Obama last night swamped the airwaves with an unprecedented 30-minute prime time commercial to ram home his plans for the United States presidency with five days of campaigning remaining.
By luck or judgment the commercial gained a huge audience thanks to its appearance before a potentially decisive game in the baseball World Series.
In a broadcast cut with a live interview to camera, the Democratic candidate presented a syrupy vie
w of the US, with shots of flags, former presidents, suburban lawns and freight trains.
Mr Obama is shown sitting at a kitchen table with a group of white blue-collar workers, repeating his election mantra that a McCain presidency would amounts to four more years of the policies of the discredited Bush administration.
"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," he says. "Much that's wrong with our country goes back even further."
Then, after cutaways showing adoring crowds greeting the candidate, he says: "I've travelled the length of this country and met so many Americans who are looking for real and lasting change."
Viewers found nothing new in the commercial, but the mere fact that Mr Obama could stage it – at a reputed cost of £3 million – underlines his huge cash advantage over his rival.
Money continues to pour into the Obama campaign, expected to raise $700 million, more than the combined Democratic and Republican campaign budgets for the 2004 election.
Democrat officials say privately there is method in the advertising madness: research showed white voter opinion of Mr Obama almost always improved the more his face was seen around a state.
One official told The Scotsman it was down to race. He said: "For some white people, Obama is unfamiliar, (so] they need time to get to know him."
Mr McCain has also launched a late advertising blitz, aiming his fire at the dangers he says are posed by an inexperienced Mr Obama taking power.
Images of his commercials feature Islamic extremists, tanks and a storm-tossed seascape, overlaid with comments from Mr Obama's running mate that, were he to win the White House, an "international crisis" would "test the mettle of (Mr Obama]".
Voter reaction to the Obama commercial is not yet clear, but Republicans hope the eight per cent of undecided voters – enough to give Mr McCain the presidency if they all break his way – may be put off by what they see as Democratic hubris.
Figures released yesterday show that Mr Obama's advertisements have run a staggering 145,000 times, compared with Mr McCain's 60,000 ad spots.
