It’s probably a regional thing, but for the past few days, I have been absolutely inundated with bullshit commercials for Barack Obama.
Every. fucking. commercial. break. I listened to the radio for a total of about an hour today. I heard at least half a dozen ads for Barack Obama. I watched a bit of tv tonight, maybe two hours. I saw the same ad about a dozen times. This shit has gone on for days and days and I’m just biting my nails in anticipation of the primary so it will end.
They’re bullshit ads, to boot. This is where his campaign money is going? “Hey, young voters-- Barack promises change! Obama has a long history of being able to bring people together!” Not one of these ads references his position on any political issue. Just buzzwords to brainwash people to mindlessly vote, in case they hadn’t already been following. “Change!” “Unity!” “Hope!” I at least respect Hillary for not pandering to the uneducated vote in this state.
Sorry for the lack of swearing, but I’m just too tired. Been listening to some bullshit ad all week.
Point taken. Mine was that I’ve never seen such a deluge in such a short period of time. It really seems as if he spent every last penny to put an ad in every second of advertising possible. And they’re nonsensical, pointless ads.
Scarlett Johansson left me a voicemail message this morning asking me out on a date. I mean, she said she was asking me to vote for Obama tomorrow, but her meaning was clear.
I haven’t seen very many candidate commercials this time around. What I will be glad to be done with are the commercials for Propositions 94-97 on the California ballot. Those commercials have been constantly since about November, and in the past two weeks, it’s been pretty much every commercial break. SHUT UP.
That’s a funny thing to say considering that Barack does much better among college graduates and post-graduates that Hillary does, but Hillary does much better among high school dropouts and those without a college education.
If indeed Obama is pandering to the uneducated vote, he’s doing a terrible job of it.
Well, what demographic would you feel is most targeted by ads whose only message is that Obama “brings people together,” while flashing pictures of Obama holding children with adults standing around smiling in awe?
The sorts of people that vote for a candidate based on their gut judgments of his character, I would suppose (i.e. nearly all Americans in a primary where there are few if any significant policy differences).
But on another level, people who haven’t gotten the Obama narrative of crossing divides to bring people together in a movement for change. You’d call that empty words, perhaps. But it’s not empty, it’s just process-focused instead of policy-focused. Arguably a more realistic view of things.
But I’m tired of political ads too. I didn’t mean to distract from your valid pitting except to point out the irony of him appealing to the uneducated. Carry on.
I’d call it pretty empty, myself. I can’t recall a candidate in my lifetime who hasn’t at some point tried to play up the “bringing people together” and “crossing boundaries” lines. I’d call it more idealistic, actually.
I suppose my pitting is more directed at that – the attempt to remind everyone, incessantly, that Obama is the candidate who wants to “unite us.”
You didn’t distract – I think you actually helped me better target the source of my recreational outrage.
Heh. On the other side of that, I did some phone bank time for the Kerry campaign in 2004.
Just do some quick lip service to their cause – tell them thanks for the call, and you’re all geared up and ready to head out and vote for whoever their candidate is.
If it works today like it did in 2004, you’ll go on the “done deal” list – the “list of people we won’t waste time calling anymore because they’re already behind us.” Unless that group actually is pandering to the uneducated and/or forgetful.
Huh. My local programming features Romney ads (they’re really anti-Clinton ads) predominantly; Obama and Clinton seem to be equally represented next.
I’m very eager to see tomorrow’s results; Obama has closed the gap to within a few percentage points of Clinton and McCain has done the same with Romney, according to pollsters.
For the record, I’m voting Obama. Went to his local HQ about two weeks ago to get a few bumper stickers and was pleased to find that they were out of them. I see fewer bumper stickers this time around - some friends have had their stickers obliterated by magic markers by the opposition, whomever they may be.
I’ve received non-stop calls from moveon but they’ve all been with very personable young people who actually want to discuss stuff. For some odd reason I’m on an Illinois Republican’s mailing/phone list and no matter what I do, I can’t get rid of him. He’s telling me to vote for Huckabee.
Well, I’m a shameless Obama supporter, so I’m obviously going to disagree. But I understand where you’re coming from. I’m not sure it would behoove Obama to show off more of his inner policy wonk–it didn’t help Gore.
But I would just say this: You’re right that his message is a common refrain. We all remember “a uniter, not a divider.” It’s probably so common because people actually want that, perhaps right now moreso than in decades. But that doesn’t mean it’s an empty message. It just means that there’ve been a lot of candidates that offer it cynically, or can’t deliver on it.
The real question is whether Obama could actually do it. In my estimation, he *is *doing it. 15,000 people for a Democratic primary candidate in Idaho? 750,000 individual donations–in a primary! He’s doubling turnout. Bringing new people into the process every day. He’s winning independents by big margins. He’s walking the walk, like he did in Illinois, and like he has done in the Senate.
I think the referenced commercial is just an attempt to show that movement, viscerally.
A celebrity, author, or media whore expressing support for a candidate, IMO, is not an endorsement. Someone who holds a political office, or formerly held one? I’ll go with that. But Robert DeNiro, Barbra Streisand, Snoop Dogg, Anne Rice, and Toni Morrison supporting the candidate of their choice - let’s stop calling it an endorsement, MSM? What do you say?
At least Hillary did not wake you up from a nap on your day off like she did to me yesterday. BTW: not really the voice I want to wake up to.
I really hate pre-recorded calls. It nevers endears the politician using this device to me. I have received calls from people calling on behalf of Obama, Romney & McCain. Only Hillary had a stupid pre-recorded message.
I can relate with the young ones. In my youth, we were constantly begging for change. All we wanted was enough to make our way to Haight-Asbury with some flowers in our hair. Good to see the new generation is walking in our sandals.
Just keep repeating this mantra to yourself: Thank (insert diety of choice) Iowa and New Hampshire are first in the nation, or I would be getting this shit from 14 canidates.
Imagine getting woken up to hear from Duncan Hunter or Chris Dodd.
