Sunday, October 26, 2008

Obama declares self President. I'm basically OK with that

Clever bit of mindcraft by Obama’s ad people at the end of this one. If the last stumbling block for a lot of people is not what he proposes, but who he is, then this is a subtle way of getting at that part of the brain. Two minutes of fairly safe policy proposals, and then, at the end, as he’s approving the message and asking for your vote, the words

Barack Obama
President

appear on the screen. Makes sense: he’s asking for your vote for President. But the effect is to apply that title to him as though he already had the job, after priming you with a bunch of reasonable-sounding things. It’s like they’re saying, “See, that doesn’t look so crazy, now, does it?” It’s not “Barack Obama for President” or “Vote for Barack Obama.” It’s the foregone conclusion: Barack Obama. President.

Has quite a nice ring to it, actually.

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