by David Safier
It’s revealing to see how ads are written for different states. On television and in his fliers, Obama is featuring the hard working, middle American man and woman. A television ad has salt-of-the-earth types at gas stations complaining about gas prices. Toward the end of the ad, a few say, “That’s why I support Barack Obama. He’ll bring an end to …” The flier his campaign is dropping on doorsteps shows Obama looking at a man in a hard hat and protective goggles. The man is looking down, both determined and concerned about his future. The slogan is, “It’s time for Washington to start working for you.”
I haven’t seen any of Clinton’s campaign literature. Her strongest TV ad attacks Obama for saying she is close to lobbyists when, according to the ad, lobbyists head his campaign (or his fundraising?) in a number of states.
Both candidates, of course, also have the usual uplifting ad that is a pastiche of voice-overs and phrases from their campaign speeches.
I’m honest enough to admit that the coverage in Philly newspapers leans toward Obama (and here, I must admit, I’m contrasting myself to Clinton supporters who said the debate was balanced and informative). In one paper, the post-debate, front page banner headline read, “Viewers Upset with ABC Debate.” Another had a smaller front page headline, “ABC gets an earful after debate.” A third had an op ed, “ABC debate was trivial pursuit.”
My favorite, partisan that I am, was an op ed debunking the “elite” label placed on Obama:
“Clinton, who has racked up some $100 million by rubbing elbows with society’s upper crust, lifts her pursed lips from her crystal champagne flute long enough to call some brother from the South Side an elitist?
Are you kidding me?
McCain, who won his first election a couple of years after marrying into his wife Cindy’s vast fortune, said not one peep when his hero and fellow warmonger Dick Cheney grunted a dismissive “So?” in reaction to the overwhelming number of Americans against the Iraq war.
But Barack Obama, who turned down a whopping salary out of Harvard Law School to go back and work in Chicago’s poorest communities for peanuts is arrogant? Who comes up with this stuff?”
I imagine if I were in Pittsburg or some of the smaller areas in western Pennsylvania, I would see a different kind of coverage.