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Home > Blogs > Ohio politics > Archives > 2008 > June > 19 > Entry
Obama “Country I Love” ad
The ad: “Country I Love,” 60 seconds.
Producer: Barack Obama campaign.
Where to see it: It begins airing Friday, June 20, in 18 states, including Ohio. View it at DaytonDailyNews.com/eyeonohio.
Script: “I’m Barack Obama. America is a country of strong families and strong values. My life’s been blessed by both.
“I was raised by a single mom and my grandparents. We didn’t have much money, but they taught me values straight from the Kansas heartland where they grew up. Accountability and self-reliance. Love of country. Working hard without making excuses. Treating your neighbor as you’d like to be treated.
“It’s what guided me as I worked my way up — taking jobs and loans to make it through college. It’s what led me to pass up Wall Street jobs and go to Chicago instead, helping neighborhoods devastated when steel plants closed. “That’s why I passed laws moving people from welfare to work, cut taxes for working families and extended health care for wounded troops who’d been neglected.
“I approved this message because I’ll never forget those values, and, if I have the honor of taking the oath of office as president, it will be with a deep and abiding faith in the country I love.”
Video: The ad opens with video of Obama sitting in a living room wearing a sport coat and soft guitar music playing. It cuts to childhood photos of Obama and then footage of him hugging a supporter, meeting with workers around a kitchen table and shaking hands with a soldier.
Analysis: The ad is a biographical piece that introduces the candidate to voters, emphasizing hard work, personal responsibility and humble roots. Obama all but puts on work boots and goes to a construction site to show what a regular guy he is. The ad leaves out some of the exotic and elite biographical details: a father from Kenya, part of his childhood spent in Indonesia and a law degree from Harvard University.
Aside from being a personal introduction, Obama tells viewers that he loves his country. This is response to the fact that Sen. John McCain’s campaign ads have focused on his time as a POW and his status as a Vietnam War hero. In addition, Obama’s wife, Michelle, has been hammered for making a statement that this year was the first time she has been proud of the United States.
Michelle Obama this week appeared on The View, a talk show popular with women, to say, among other things, that she is proud of this country. —- By Laura Bischoff
Permalink | Comments (7) | Post your comment | Categories: Eye on Ohio
Comments
By aw
June 23, 2008 7:51 PM | Link to this
obama..reintroduced.. like a an old brand of soap, “typical politician”.. ..his old brand of soap, was his only polical experiences as a state senator.. and his “new” video?..wouldn’t made it past the first committee of P&G VP’s.. why P&G?..’coz O is just marketing himself.. and hasn’t done a dang thing except market himself.. sheesh!By Alice
June 23, 2008 9:42 AM | Link to this
“Why does a politician have to make an ad to say that this is the “country I love?” For the same reason a politician has to wear a lapel pin to show his love for his country.By Savanation
June 21, 2008 10:10 PM | Link to this
“Why does a politician have to make an ad to say that this is the “country I love?” Well, basically because Republicans are not quite as bright as the general population and so Sen. Obama has to make it very simple so that they can understand. BTW what was Michelle Obama doing when Cindy McCain was hosting The View? Being a wonderful mother to two children and not copying recipes from the Foof Network to palm off as her own. Maybe when Michelle is First Lady she can send Cindy McCain to represent America at the World Convention of Beer Distillers. Ethel seems not to have learned that it is best to know what you are talking about before opening your mouth and inserting foot.By Ethel S.
June 20, 2008 6:36 PM | Link to this
Why does a politician have to make an ad to say that this is the “country I love?” Who is Sen. Obama trying to convince that he loves this country? And why does his wife, Michelle, need a “makeover”? This ad raises more questions than it answers. I should mention that while Michelle Obama made an appearance on the “View” TV show to discuss her “makeover,” Cindy McCain was in Vietnam representing the USA by working with children who needed cleft palate surgery.By KP
June 20, 2008 4:12 PM | Link to this
Orange, Given the fact that NEITHER of them have ever been president, that pretty much kills that “lack of experience” argument. Your beloved W had a little more “political experience”, if you will, than Obama, and you’ve seen where that’s gotten us…By orange
June 20, 2008 3:41 PM | Link to this
We think this ad is pretty weak; I’m sure he’s a nice guy but it doesn’t make up for his lack of experience.By fedup
June 19, 2008 11:40 PM | Link to this
Too bad niether obama or mccain have a clue about any of the issues that are important to us…but rest assured they have the interest of some at heart such as amnesty and a path to citizenship for 20-30 million illegal immigrants in this country and making sure that corporations can have as much cheap foriegn labor as they need(via increased work visas)…people really need to wake up and see what these two are really about…they both want change all right but none that would really benefit any Americans.They are like two wings on the same bird.