June 19, 2008
Why candidates approve their ads
With the presidential campaigns getting going and with Virginia in play, get ready for a barrage of campaign ads. I hate these things. Positive or negative, they reveal very little about the candidates. More often, they are blunt instruments that lift nuanced positions out of context.
And then there's the end of the ads. Federal campaign laws require candidates to put their names on the ads and affirm that they are ultimately responsible for them. So, they say something like, "I'm Abraham Lincoln, and I approved this ad."
Some campaign manager somewhere figured out that they could do more with it. Candidates started getting cute, using the affirmation as a way to make even more inane points. Hence, I just received a press release from the Obama campaign with the text of his latest ad, which will air in 18 states, including Virginia.
I approved this message because I’ll never forget those values, and if I have the honor of taking the oath of office as President, it will be with a deep and abiding faith in the country I love.
No, you approved it because the law requires you to do so. It's going to be a long five months.
Comments
[June 19, 2008 12:24 PM]
HenryHere's the link to Obama's Muslim problem
http://wdef.com/news/obama_muslim_controversy/06/2008
[June 19, 2008 12:57 PM]
Ed S.Christian, good point.
Maybe we could develop a system of "worthless points" assigned to oft overused and pointless "key terms". A certain number of "worthless points" through the campaign and the candidate is deemed nothing more than a buzzword factory and therefore unfit for office. A notional list:
-"for the children"
-"change"
-"bi-partisan"
-"unilateral"
-"common sense"
-...plenty more, have at it
[June 19, 2008 2:13 PM]
JoshObama apologized profusely for moving those two Muslim women out from behind him. In character, Obama blamed the aides, saying their actions aren't reflective of his values
OK, so.....will Obama make it up to Muslims by inviting veiled women to sit in the background of his forthcoming appearances in full view of the cameras?
[June 19, 2008 4:38 PM]
Other JohnI would not be surprised if more Muslim men and women try to make appearances at his campaign rally stops to prove a point. Obama will either give in and let some of the Muslims be seen at his events and subsequently start the e-mail rumor-mill again, or he will continue to turn them away and keep the Muslims angry with him. Either way, he is not going to come out unscatehed by his campaign manipulating the backdrop and excluding certain segments of society in the process. He is beginning to show that he is not different from any previous politician, but rather almost exactly the same. The only true "change" that he brings to the mix is his heritage.
[June 23, 2008 2:30 PM]
JimYou know the State of the Union address would get a lot of viewers if Obama wore a robe and scimitar.