30 Minutes of Barack Obama

Last night's 30 minute campaign broadcast from the Obama campaign was brilliant.

John McCain was never mentioned. Instead, the ad featured the stories of those struggling to make it in Bush's economy. Real people with obviousy real problems. Each vignette was followed with Obama listing the specific steps he will take to alleviate the troubles of those featured and others like them. The message was effective: There are too many important things to talk about to waste time on jabs at the opponent. I'm no expert, but it seems to me that this is a strategy that will appeal to inexplicably undecided voters who have indicated in the polls of the last several weeks that they consider negative campaigning a distraction.

At the end, I was left wondering what McCain would look like on air for thirty minutes, and I could not imagine wàtching him talking to and empathisizing with the common man, nor do I think he would be able to refrain from his Bill Ayers/ he's a socialist/ he's un-American diatribe that seems to constitute the sum total of his presidential vision. We need better than that. We deserve better than that.