Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Obama As Urkel; Is It Too Much Obamamania?

REPUBLICANS CAN WATCH 'PUSHING DAISIES' ON ABC, INSTEAD

election'08: the race to clean the place


It turns out Sen. Barack Obama's 30-minute campaign commercial to be aired tonight does not actually conflict with the resumption of the World Series.

According to the New York Times, Sen. John McCain told supporters in Hershey, PA the World Series would never be pre-empted under his presidency.

The funny things is nobody is really watching this year's Fall Classic anyway. The rain-shortened Game 5 Monday was the lowest rated fifth game of the World Series ever.

It's a nice trick for the McCain campaign to play to the World Series fancy of white males--an important demographic for the senator's chance next Tueday--yet, as with many of McCain's talking points they stand far outside the realm of truth.

Invariably, Joe the Plumber is outraged over watching the World Series at the time actually noted before Obama's infomercial and incensed by the possibility of paying sales tax on the 100-inch plasma TV who might one day buy, presumably when he gets that plumbers license and buys that infamous business.

Quite ominously, ABC, the lone network to opt out of televising "Barack Obama: American Stories", will be airing an episode of "Pushing Daisies" on the East Coast.

The Obama campaign is obviously still flush with large amounts of advertising dollars. The spots costs in the neighborhood of $5 million.

How will the audacious Obama TV program go over with the electorate? One of McCain's long-standing criticisms of Obama is his propensity for grand spectacles. Does a lead-in to the World Series signify something a bit over the top?

The film, produced by davis Guggenheim, is reported to be dripping with stars and stripes and apple pie. What you probably won't see is a production similar to the much-mocked Ross Perot infomerical in 1992. In that spot, Perot drolled folksy one-liners and trotted out his collection of pie charts.

The commercials seem like an unlikely risk. As Willie Nelson once sang, the television networks are telling Obama, "If you got the money honey, I've got the time."

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