Pat Dollard

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The critics, of both performance and substance, are not pleased. AP says he’s a liar. What I saw was him trying to say he was white. Which suddenly made this seem not so off the wall. Apparently that’s the big finale for the undecided or shaky: “I’m white.” It would appear that blacks, after a rigorous, thorough, and thoughtful examination of his policies, are solidly behind him, so he went to the Big House for the last votes.

Boston Herald:

Barack Obama shows dull side on infomercial

“Knight Rider” – one of the TV shows that got bumped to make way for Barack Obama’s infomercial – was looking pretty good last night about six minutes into the candidate’s last-minute pitch.

The Democratic contender had better be elected president, because he wouldn’t make a great late-night infomercial pitchman.

His 30-minute TV special was aimed at the middle class and depicted a few Americans struggling with finances and health care that left you with a feeling of depression rather than hope.

Those vingettes were far more engaging than the prerecorded segments of Obama speaking in a room that looked an awful lot like the Oval Office, and the pitches by business execs and politicians, including Gov. Deval Patrick.

The Obama campaign shelled out about $4 million for 30 minutes of TV on three networks and cable, including CBS, NBC, Fox, BET, Univision, MSNBC and TV One – not willing to risk losing any cave-dwelling voters who might possibly have missed the media saturation to date.

The 8 p.m. commercial also featured Obama’s wife, Michelle, his two daughters and photos of his parents. He spoke about meeting his father only once and his mother’s death from cancer.

The piece really felt like an infomercial whenever Obama spoke about his plans should he win the presidency. It ended with him speaking live at a Florida rally.

Democratic media consultant Peter Fenn called it a “smart move” given the number of undecided voters and the critical stakes of this election.

“Even if the audience is not huge, it’s a question of who’s watching it,” said Fenn, an adjunct George Washington University professor whose former staffer produced the show.

Tom Fiedler, dean of Boston University’s College of Communication, said it’s unlikely that people would watch the special in its entirety.
END

Associated Press:

WASHINGTON (AP) – Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was less than upfront in his half-hour commercial Wednesday night about the costs of his programs and the crushing budget pressures he would face in office.

Obama’s assertion that “I’ve offered spending cuts above and beyond” the expense of his promises is accepted only by his partisans. His vow to save money by “eliminating programs that don’t work” masks his failure throughout the campaign to specify what those programs are—beyond the withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

A sampling of what voters heard in the ad, and what he didn’t tell them:

THE SPIN: “That’s why my health care plan includes improving information technology, requires coverage for preventive care and pre-existing conditions and lowers health care costs for the typical family by $2,500 a year.”

THE FACTS: His plan does not lower premiums by $2,500, or any set amount. Obama hopes that by spending $50 billion over five years on electronic medical records and by improving access to proven disease management programs, among other steps, consumers will end up saving money. He uses an optimistic analysis to suggest cost reductions in national health care spending could amount to the equivalent of $2,500 for a family of four. Many economists are skeptical those savings can be achieved, but even if they are, it’s not a certainty that every dollar would be passed on to consumers in the form of lower premiums.

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THE SPIN: “I’ve offered spending cuts above and beyond their cost.”

THE FACTS: Independent analysts say both Obama and Republican John McCain would deepen the deficit. The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates Obama’s policy proposals would add a net $428 billion to the deficit over four years—and that analysis accepts the savings he claims from spending cuts. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, whose other findings have been quoted approvingly by the Obama campaign, says: “Both John McCain and Barack Obama have proposed tax plans that would substantially increase the national debt over the next 10 years.” The analysis goes on to say: “Neither candidate’s plan would significantly increase economic growth unless offset by spending cuts or tax increases that the campaigns have not specified.”

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THE SPIN: “Here’s what I’ll do. Cut taxes for every working family making less than $200,000 a year. Give businesses a tax credit for every new employee that they hire right here in the U.S. over the next two years and eliminate tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. Help homeowners who are making a good faith effort to pay their mortgages, by freezing foreclosures for 90 days. And just like after 9-11, we’ll provide low-cost loans to help small businesses pay their workers and keep their doors open. ”

THE FACTS: His proposals—the tax cuts, the low-cost loans, the $15 billion a year he promises for alternative energy, and more—cost money, and the country could be facing a record $1 trillion deficit next year. Indeed, Obama recently acknowledged—although not in his commercial—that: “The next president will have to scale back his agenda and some of his proposals.”

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THE SPIN: “I also believe every American has a right to affordable health care.”

THE FACTS: That belief should not be confused with a guarantee of health coverage for all. He makes no such promise. Obama hinted as much in the ad when he said about the problem of the uninsured: “I want to start doing something about it.” He would mandate coverage for children but not adults. His program is aimed at making insurance more affordable by offering the choice of government-subsidized coverage similar to that in a plan for federal employees and other steps, including requiring larger employers to share costs of insuring workers.

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THE SPIN: “We are currently spending $10 billion a month in Iraq, when they have a $79 billion surplus. It seems to me that if we’re going to be strong at home as well as strong abroad that we’ve got to look at bringing that war to a close.” These lines in the ad were taken from a debate with McCain.

THE FACTS: Obama was once and very often definitive about getting combat troops out in 16 months (At times during the primaries, he promised to do so within a year). More recently, without backing away explicitly from the 16-month withdrawal pledge, he has talked of the need for flexibility. In the primaries, it would have been a jarring departure for him to have said merely that “we’ve got to look at” ending the war. As for Iraq’s surplus, it’s true that Iraq could end up with a surplus that large, but that hasn’t happened yet.