30 Minute Obama ad.

If you didn't catch it on TV the other night, and wanted to watch it, here it is:




Personally speaking, I think it was a well done ad. As the election is coming to a close, I think consolidating all of the positive aspects of Obama's platform into one piece, and combining it with the reasons - the people he's listened to - was a great choice for the Obama campaign.

All politics aside, I want to comment on the campaign that Obama has run so far. It has been wildly successful - even if he doesn't win the presidency, his campaign has been run so well it should be a model for future presidential campaigns.

Now, I know what you're thinking, if it's such a good campaign, and he doesn't win, why should it be a model? Well, first we have to understand the nature that is campaigning, and voting. The main function of a campaign is to get the person elected, however, you can't negate the people who will vote their party, or for a candidate for every reason under the sun but the campaign. These are the people who have their minds made up before the election has started, or don't bother to pay attention to any of it, and simply vote for the person with the nicest hair, or a name they vaguely remember hearing once at a cocktail party. You have the die hards and the brain dead who can swing an election!

All of that not withstanding, campaigns have to over come hurdles - fund raising, public relations, and yes, slamming the "other guy". And of course, that comes with dodging mud for the home team, too.

Obama's campaign has had some serious public relations issues to contend with. The McCain campaign threw around very seriously damaging accusations, trying to get the public to hear an insinuation about say, Obama and Ayers, and internally digest it as being associated with terrorists, and then spew it back out to others as Obama is the terrorist. This is like playing "Operator" with a political twist. Had the Obama campaign not been swift on it's feet, a rumor like this could have brought them down easily months ago. It didn't.

The Obama campaign has handily balanced the fine line between defending the candidate against outright and malicious attacks about his character, his ethnicity, and his religion without letting it become a constant defense routine. Putting your opponent on the defense is the easiest way to prevent the platform message from getting out. McCain failed to do that, and, in fact, Obama managed to work the defenses of his character in with his platform stomp speeches so that it was all one, fluid, piece.

Amazing!

The Obama campaign has shown consistency in it's campaign tactics, and preparedness in battleground states. The amount of preparation is what has astounded me. The campaign teams were in the neighborhoods knocking on doors and making phone calls before McCain was even in the state itself. Considering the fact that McCain had almost six months on Obama to prepare for the presidential race, he is seriously behind campaign wise.

So much so, that he has had to pull out of battleground states.

The other aspect that has struck me, at least, are the assertions being made by McCain's campaign that are false, and the facts asserted as facts being proven as false. In the age of instant gratification, online access to information in a New York minute, the ease at which we can get records of past speeches, debates, and quotes, and the flurry of fact checking a candidate must take extra care to ensure that what they say cannot be debunked just moments after they've said it. Or at all, if they can help it.

In this regard, I do believe that Obama's campaign has utilized and maintained the usefulness of the electronic era to it's fullest potential. While both Obama and Biden have made small gaffes and mistakes, the mistakes made on behalf of the McCain campaign are astounding. The frenzy of information being debunked, checked, or refuted justs moments after a speech or debate is something few presidential candidates have had to encounter in campaigns past. To not understand, or be wary of the ramifications of speaking about issues topics or people without having all of the facts in this era is a massive tactical mistake for campaigns to make.

As we saw with the whole "Joe the plumber" debacle.

Another area to look at is fundraising. According to The BBC Obama has raised an astonishing $659 million dollars, but most impressively, has dominated in the small donation category. Obama has latched onto and used local excitement to help raise money for his campaign. While McCain sat back, waiting for large donations to drop into his lap, and for public funds to come flowing in in September - far too late in the game - Obama managed to raise the money he needed before that public funding was even made available, and so he didn't need to take it. That saves the government some money, at least.

But more importantly, it shows campaign initiative.

Regardless of political opinions, and who you plan to vote for, if you haven't already voted, you simply can't deny that Obama has run the superior campaign.