I watched Barack Obama's half-hour "infomercial" last evening. It was well-produced, moving, touching…probably everything its makers wanted it to be. And I didn't like it. Then again, it probably didn't strike me the way it should have struck those in its target audience. To me, it was so slick and well-crafted that it triggered my "caveat emptor" sensibilities…you know, when a product is so beautifully packaged that it makes you wonder what's wrong with it. I'll bet the folks who made this documentary on Obama could make one just as beautiful and inspirational about a really bad candidate.
I always feel manipulated by these things, bombarded with images and concepts that have been factory-tested and researched to induce the desired response. I like Obama when he's just talking to us, laying out concepts and philosophies that seem to me a lot more candid and genuine than is the norm for his profession. I even liked the speech he gave shortly after where he and Bill Clinton were appearing at a "midnight rally" in Florida. Clinton spoke first and, amazingly and after a self-indulgent start, spoke mainly of Obama and not himself. What Obama followed with was also well-polished…but given how many times he's given essentially the same speech these past few months, you can forgive that. I liked him a lot more in that speech than I did in his overgrown commercial.
You can see the overgrown commercial, by the way, at this link…and at about 10,000 other places on the Internet.
Meanwhile, I'm getting hundreds of entries in our "Guess How Many Electoral Votes Barack Obama Will Receive" contest, the details of which are here. Guesses so far range from 0 to 438 but many numbers are being guessed multiple times and a lot of good ones are still unguessed. Get yours in today. You don't want to miss out on that terrific, non-existent prize. In fact, I'm thinking of doubling it.