The Obama's Fist Pound

This picture says it all...


"Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama bumps fists with his wife Michelle before his speech at his South Dakota and Montana presidential primary election night rally in St. Paul, Minnesota June 3, 2008. (Eric Miller/Reuters)" (source)

Obama and the Foreign Press

It is 10:55pm EST and I'm watching Senator Obama shake hands with people after his speech live on MSNBC. Nonetheless, look at the news papers from the foreign press. They have already put Senator Obama on the front page of their website.

Bobby Jindal VP Stump Speech Tryout

Did you see Bobby Jindal "happen" to introduce Senator McCain and give a 3 minute stump speech supporting McCain on prime time TV at about 8:30pm EST? I have to suspect that Senator McCain's campaign is trying to feel out Jindal's political prowess on a national scale.

I give the McCain credit for capitalizing on a large national prime time TV audience that is certainly filled with democrats wanting to watch Senator Obama's speech.

Fox and NBC/MSNBC in War

I was watching the O'Reilly factor on May 29, 2008 and listened to Bill O'Reilly rant on MSNBC/NBC and its supposedly unfair and biased coverage favoring Senator Obama. Although O'Reilly is definitely not the gold standard for fair journalism, I post about this because it is a new dimension of today's media--fighting about fairness and bias within the media. No longer is it political pundits complaining about media coverage, now the media personalities themselves analyze and criticize other networks. View O'Reilly's complaint here (short version) and here (longer version).


View more here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Persuasive Ad Analysis: Senator Obama: When will you finally visit Iraq?

I recently saw the following PAC ad attacking Senator Obama about his Iraq policy and failure to visit Iraq (view here at YouTube). This ad dovetails with Senator McCain's attacks on Senator Obama for his failure to visit Iraq and acknowledge the progress made.

Why This Ad is Effective

• It does not feel like a typical attack ad.
• Between the music and soft voice, the ad does not engender the feelings of a typical attack ad with dark colors, deep music, and slashing commentary.
  
• It inspires/plays on patriotism.
• It uses Senator Obama's own words against him.
• The subtle reasoning is that if Senator Obama will meet "one-on-one unconditionally" with Iran, why won't he meet under similar circumstances with American troops in Iraq.
  
• It uses a veteran.
  
• This ads credibility and makes it more difficult to attack the source of the ad.
• It plays on the perception of Senator Obama's foreign policy weakness.