The Barackomercial

I watched Barack Obama's infomercial this evening (a recorded version). Here are my observations:

1) The tone was very touching, dramatic, and congratulatory, like one would expect on a news network documentary about an important figure in history, or at least a well-loved figure. The only problem was, it was actually made by the person it was about. So to me, it came across as very self-congratulatory, which I found obnoxious after awhile.

2) It starred white people almost entirely, except for Obama himself and a few others.

3) I felt impressed on one hand by Obama's obvious ability to harness the power of electronic media to deliver his message and through which to channel funds and acquire supporters. On the other hand, his huge presence in this way makes me uncomfortable and distrustful. Don't we all know how money can create any perception and sell any product? The McCain interview afterward on Larry King was a breath of fresh air to me. He was natural, conversational, enjoyable to listen to. I feel more trusting of that type of conversation with the American public over the glitzy documentary-style format. We humans can be very prone to manipulation by these types of things. Just music itself can cause our minds to swoon over something. I have always felt distrustful of this and feel that way even moreso in the area of politics, it turns out. Has anyone seen what the Discovery channel did to our birth film? Ugh. (insert horror movie soundtrack. Literally!)

4) Obama changed the income cut off of his tax relief to $200,000 from $250,000. McCain claimed later in the evening that Biden referred to it as $150,000.

5) I kept thinking about how Obama had once pledged on paper to use public financing. I had no idea that his campaign funding is so opaque.



6) As I watched the film footage of the different families pictured, a nagging feeling kept creeping up. A lifestyle of consumerism was promoted so blatantly...the family who needs money to make the car payment. How about not having a car payment? It showed one family eating at a restaurant after the husband's work hours were drastically cut. Huh? As Barack has put it in the past, "That's not change. It's more of the same."

In fairness, this consumerism is the American lifestyle. Obama certainly didn't create it. It's weirdly depressing to me that this is what America has apparently come down to: the government ensuring that our wants and needs are guaranteed. Easy for me to say, as I have never been hungry. He was speaking of things such as health care, being able to pay the bills, etc. and these are all noble pursuits, but implicit in that is this ability to have more wiggle room in our income for the other stuff. I keep thinking about my Grandpa Earl, for instance, and the entire generation that came out of the Great Depression and still found it within themselves to fight like hell for our country and for freedom. They still loved America, even though they had absolutely nothing for a very long time. I would guess that our modern-day consumerism is a direct result of that period of time when poverty was the standard for almost everyone. Will Americans still love their country even if/when the government can't possibly fix everything? I hope so.