Just in case you missed it.
Like most bloggers, I’m a surly curmudgeon who tends to view politics with a jaundiced eye. But I have to say, I found this to be not just well-done, not just effective from a political standpoint, but genuinely moving. Yes, the people who put this together used all the standard tricks of the trade. But they used them in service of a powerful and clear message: you’re not alone, America. Things are tough, but we’re going to get through this together. That isn’t socialism, that’s the basic American ethos that we help our neighbors out when they need it, that when we work together, we can accomplish anything, whether it’s whipping Hitler or sending a man to the Moon or building the internet.
The message from the GOP has too often been the opposite — I’ve got mine, you get yours. It’s a simple message, and completely wrongheaded. Because every time we’ve abandoned the idea of giving those below us a hand up — whether in the gilded age, the roaring twenties, or now — we’ve ended up seeing the wheels fall off the wagon. Our nation’s most prosperous age came after World War II, when we decided that we’d send our soldiers to college, that we’d invest in infrastructure, from NASA to the interstates, that we’d build a better future for the children of tomorrow. And like too many unappreciative kids, the children and grandchildren of the Greatest Generation were born on third base and thought we’d hit a triple.
We are, I think, finally shaking off the selfishness that has defined our nation in the past quarter-century, finally starting to realize that we can’t have a stable nation if we don’t invest in the future. I don’t expect Obama will be a perfect president, and I’m sure I’ll find plenty of reason to criticize him, but I think he understands that basic fact: we are all in this together, and as Franklin said, we must all hang together, or we shall all hang seperately.
Didn’t like it. What I saw of it anyway. It WAS better produced than you’d expect, but I feel that airing it was a tactical gaff. At this point–and speaking here as a Canadian, mind you, and one who LIKES to follow the campaign–we’ve seen too much of the race for too long to feel anything but hostile to 30 pure minutes of campaigning.
A 30 minute GOP ad would be fun, however.
I agree with you amp. It was moving. I’m not a full on Obama lover, but the truth is, he does give me hope as corny as it sounds. I don’t think he’ll fix everything, I don’t think he’ll be a perfect president, but a lot of good things can come out of a president who is as inspirational as he is. I find myself thinking he’s more similar to FDR than the JFK a lot of the time. We are at a point where I think Americans really need an inspirational leader and a time where I think it’s possible to pass some more legislation similar to the “Great Society” which I know scares conservatives to death but makes me super giddy.
Not to pick nits, but….
I settled in with my nice, cool beer, prepared for my favorite televised sport. I elected to take a hit every time Obama made reference to … oh, let’s say … urban America!
30 minutes later scene looked remarkably similar, except the beer was older, warmer and flatter. I heard one passing reference to evil Kansas City schools, and saw one shot of the gleaming skyline of bustling Albuquerque. I’m sure there was less alcohol in my system after the speech than before. I expected that the message would be sobering, but I hadn’t expected it quite so literally.
Yeah, I get that Obama has already got the urban vote locked up. But come on – most of us work in cities, and a buttload of us live there. Obama could have at least waved at us, for cryin’ out loud.
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I think it made sense to focus on smallness — small towns, small businesses, etc. This guy makes a good case for why the federal government should have focused on small banks as a way to help those small towns and small businesses. I live and work in midtown Manhattan after getting out of a small Texas town, so it’s not that I’m sentimentally favoring such towns. But this executive of a big bank explains that there is a genuine difference in the relationship between a big bank and a small business, and the relationship between a community bank and a small business in that same community:
As an Independent, I was very turned-off by this informercial. It’s becoming more and more obvious to me that Obama needs to buy half hour commercials and ask his hollywood friends to vouch for him b/c he simply has no record to stand on. I’m really not buying into this b/c talk is cheap and if you don’t have the action to support what you are saying you might as well believe everything every slick politican tells you. That’s why I’m backing McCain!
Did I miss the “Hollywood friend” who was in the commercial? I only saw respected public servants and businessmen vouching for Obama. Or is Google considered Hollywood now?
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That isn’t socialism, that’s the basic American ethos that we help our neighbors out when they need it, that when we work together, we can accomplish anything, whether it’s whipping Hitler or sending a man to the Moon or building the internet.
It is definitely part of the basic American ethos that we help out neighbors out when they need it. What is NOT part of the basic American ethos is that the government is the best and desirable and first option for Americans to use to do so. And when conservatives have pointed that out, the left reacts by saying something along the lines of “The message from the GOP has too often been the opposite — I’ve got mine, you get yours.” = that since they oppose using the government to do this, what they REALLY MEAN is that they oppose doing it at all. But that’s not true. It has long been a hallmark of America going back to when Alexis de Toqueville travelled in the new republic, and you can see it’s fruits by perusing the Yellow Pages or your local newspaper. How you help your neighbors out is a decision best left to individuals either acting voluntarily or in groups of self-organized volunteers (e.g.,. the Red Cross), groups that are most likely to be influenced by their members on determining needs and priorities.
It is definitely part of the basic American ethos that we help out neighbors out when they need it. What is NOT part of the basic American ethos is that the government is the best and desirable and first option for Americans to use to do so.
Yes, but it is part of the basic American ethos not to reject government as an option to use for doing so when voluntarism seems to have failed. See, e.g., McCain’s hero Teddy Roosevelt. Even before the Declaration of Independence was written, the law of the Massachusetts colony required every citizen to pay to maintain the common schools and Harvard University, rather than depending on charitable largesse to maintain these institutions.
I haven’t seen Obama advocate that government be the first option in any area; everywhere that he has advocated government intervention, there has been a failure of private action, whether it be in the environment, health care, education, etc. Charity toward neighbors isn’t in most people’s immediate self-interest, and self-interest is what guides our actions most of the time. (The inclination to do more for family members stems from the self-interest in the survival of our genes.)
Ideally, meat processing plants would label their food accurately and not feed us diseased steers; realistically, they want to make a buck like everyone else and have to be overseen by someone who doesn’t get paid based on the level of production. Ideally, members of community would pay for public schools voluntarily; realistically, people look out for their own kids and say other people should look out for theirs. Ideally, people who see an uninsured child carried into an emergency room would spontaneously pull out their wallets to cover the cost of care; realistically, this doesn’t seem to happen.