Slog News & Arts

Line Out

Music & Nightlife

« Who Gets Fired from the Force? | Savage Disagrees With Sullivan... »

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Here Come the Feb. 5 Commercials

posted by on January 29 at 14:30 PM


Meanwhile, the Clinton and Obama camps are busy pre-spinning the significance of today’s primary vote in Florida. Dueling media conference calls aimed at affecting tonight’s coverage (one of them featuring John Kerry) can be listened to here and here.

UPDATE: Oh, and here come the Feb. 5 commercials, Spanish edition:

RSS icon Comments

1

Hmmm...I suspect that if Obama plays the resentment toward the front loading of the nomination process right, he can parlay it into support among later voting states when it comes down to the wire in the delegate race.

Posted by Gitai | January 29, 2008 2:43 PM
2

What about the Feb. 9th commercials?

Don't we get no love?

Posted by Will in Seattle | January 29, 2008 2:46 PM
3

I can't watch these vids at work, but I'm disenheartened to see the endorsements being used by Obama. I'm not sure I understand what the reasoning is. I get the Ted Kennedy one, but Caroline? Is he thinking that young people, most of whom have no idea who she is (nor any reason to), are already likely his, so he's trying to sway the 50-pluses who remember her? I'm not sure that's going to be any more successful than just his standard speaking for himself? Or am I incorrect in thinking that nobody cares about Caroline Kennedy (who is a famous nobody, sorry)?

Posted by Fnarf | January 29, 2008 3:00 PM
4

when i think of the kennedys i only imagine a drunk phoning people in their underwear, date rape and manslaughter, oh and good old infidelity. and marilyn monroe.

hill's ads are superior.

but go ahead with that kennedy thing if you think it's helping....

Posted by lineout fan | January 29, 2008 3:05 PM
5

The Ted Kennedy endorsement means two things: Pssst, Dems, Obama's a liberal. It also helps assuage the "experience" anxiety.

If you want to know what the Kennedys mean to people my age and younger, do these things: 1) Watch that My So-Called Life episode where the history teacher makes the kids watch a video about the JFK assassination. 2) Think about the fact that, a few years after that episode aired, 9/11 became the defining generational experience that those kids had been craving: a slap in the face.

This NYT piece is instructive, I think.

Posted by annie | January 29, 2008 3:21 PM
6

Wow is Hillary getting more and more desperate.

It is hilarious to watch.

Posted by William J. Clinton, esq. | January 29, 2008 3:25 PM
7

Eh, endorsements don't mean much these days. Most folks have their minds made up, whether they admit it or not. If I was Obama, I would be careful in blowing money on ads though. Hillary has huge leads in nearly every Feb 5 state, and her team is organized and large. Concentrate on select areas that will help, and let the rest go.

Posted by Tony | January 29, 2008 3:26 PM
8

Annie @5: I get that, but that's Teddie and JFK (I still think RFK's a far better comp), not Caroline. Do young people actually know or care who she is? Why? Her entire sum of value lies in having attended a certain funeral 45 years ago.

Hmm, maybe they're not playing up the RFK angle because RFK's eight thousand kids appear to all be endorsing Clinton. I'm not so sure how far the Kennedy magnetic field extends outward from the center. I'm guessing about as far as Teddy's belt buckle.

Posted by Fnarf | January 29, 2008 4:05 PM
9

ok. the spanish obama video should've been better if he was having dinner with either mestizo or chicano mexican family. The Clinton Spanish ad gives Hillary that Tia (Aunt) Hillary look that'll strike a chord in Latino families.

Posted by apres_mois | January 29, 2008 4:59 PM
10

@8: Ads are not built to withstand this kind of analysis. Caroline says her daddy is like Obama? OK then. It really doesn't matter who she is or what she's done; her endorsement just connects the dots. The ad really is about Kennedy, not Kennedy Schlossberg. (And the reason it isn't about RFK is because JFK is eight bajillion times more famous.)

Posted by annie | January 29, 2008 5:13 PM
11

Great. Caroline Kennedy isn't just a Kato Kaitlin, she's a terrible speaker, too.

Posted by Big Sven | January 29, 2008 5:19 PM
12

At least both Democrats use native speakers and writers for their spanish ads. Which was worse Guiliani or Mitt's son? Both monotonic with mistakes in word choice and grammar that a first semester student could have fixed. Guilliani read the script in english sounds. (I thought Mormons were supposed to be good with languages?)

Posted by anna | January 29, 2008 5:50 PM
13

Two of the videos have been taken down, alas.

Posted by Fnarf | January 29, 2008 6:05 PM
14

I can tell you why Obama's ad features Caroline Kennedy. Four years ago, just before the Democratic primary in the Illinois senate race, Obama ran a virtually identical ad featuring Sheila Simon, the daughter of Paul Simon.

Paul Simon (a former senator from Illinois), like JFK today, was a well-liked and widely-respected past holder of the office Barack was running for. The ad got loads of favorable comment and publicity, giving him credibility just a few days before the primary vote (where he won BIG).

Obama remembers that ad as political gold and he's essentially using the same script here. We'll have to see whether it's quite as effective this time...

Posted by close observer | January 29, 2008 10:22 PM
15

if that's Caroline Kennedy "excited" about a candidate, I'd hate to see her feeling lukewarm about someone.

Posted by josh | January 29, 2008 10:55 PM

Comments Closed

In order to combat spam, we are no longer accepting comments on this post (or any post more than 14 days old).