Ads

I discovered both of these through Daily Kos – two of the most moving campaign ads I have seen:

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Plan for Change

Barack Obama has done something out of the ordinary for this US Presidential campaign – recorded a two-minute ad addressing substantive issues:

The ad then points viewers to his web site for more information on his economic plan.

It will be interesting to see what impact this has – being two minutes long, the ad is unlikely to get played for free in its entirety, but if it gets the focus back onto issues then it may still affect the media coverage. The concern will be that the media will juxtapose it with McCain’s own claims to have prophesied the current disaster and to be a champion of regulatory reform – both lies, of course.

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Mavericks

A decent ad from the Obama campaign – and, most importantly, it calls a lie a lie:

And as Palin starts to emerge from the controlled environment of the RNC and reveal her ignorance about economic issues, the Democrats should look to start pressing hard on the issues.

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Joining the dots

Matt Yglesias has kicked off a discussion of the apparent dilemma the media comes up against when a campaign lies but rebuttal involves repeating the lie. (NB: Matt has apparently edited his post – the original content is currently reproduced in comment 7 to the post).

I don’t see much of a dilemma. Point out the lie – put the truth ahead of any repetition of the lie itself, establish and elaborate on the context underlying the truth, and then conclude by restating clearly what the truth is. It seems to me that the biggest dilemma the media faces is that it has to accommodate any new material into its pre-existing narrative – and in that narrative, John McCain is a straight-talking maverick.

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John McCain is a sad little liar

Yet again.

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What to do

Interesting how politicians (of all denominations) always know what Parliamentary reforms are needed as soon as they no longer have the power to change them:

Outgoing Federal Senate President Alan Ferguson says Question Time is a farce and there need to be radical changes in the way it is handled.

I would have thought that the period in which one’s party holds a majority in both Houses would be the time to deal with something that you believe is a ‘farce’.

It’s a bit like the way Opposition parties always know that there is a desperate need to reform policies on Government advertising. If only these moments of sheer clarity of purpose would happen at some point other than (i) during an election campaign and (ii) when handing over power to someone else.

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Hilton > McCain on energy (and marketing)

John McCain ran an ad comparing Obama’a celebrity status to Britney and Paris. Paris Hilton responds.

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