Legal Commentary

Obama's New Patriotic, Family Values Ad

By Jeralyn

Barack Obama has a new ad airing in battleground states touting his family values. Here's the script:

"I'm Barack Obama. America is a country of strong families and strong values. My life's been blessed by both.

"I was raised by a single mom and my grandparents. We didn't have much money, but they taught me values straight from the Kansas heartland where they grew up. Accountability and self-reliance. Love of country. Working hard without making excuses. Treating your neighbor as you'd like to be treated. It's what guided me as I worked my way up — taking jobs and loans to make it through college.

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"It's what led me to pass up Wall Street jobs and go to Chicago instead, helping neighborhoods devastated when steel plants closed. That's why I passed laws moving people from welfare to work, cut taxes for working families and extended health care for wounded troops who'd been neglected.

"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."

The ad is running in Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Virginia.

It's goal:

By focusing on family and core values, Obama is trying to show voters of all stripes — Democrats, independents, and Republicans — that they have much in common. These issues transcend political preferences and Obama is seeking to win over independents and some Republicans unhappy with eight years of Republican rule.

The campaign chose to run the ad in traditional battleground states as well as some that have reliably voted for Republican presidential candidates in the past several elections, including Alaska, Colorado, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Indiana, Montana, and North Dakota. The intention is to test Obama's theory that his appeal allows him to make Democrats competitive in states that the party typically ignores and, thus, give Democrats better chances to rack up the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House.

Why it's a smart move: It will force McCain to spend money in states Republicans consider safe.

Politico has more on the ad. On a related note, Politico yesterday ran this article suggesting that Obama could win the popular vote but lose the electoral vote and the White House.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on June 19, 2008 (boomark / email).