My first campaign donation.

Posted by Lindsay in US Election 2008.

Last night, I busted out my bank card and bought a little piece of the American dream.  There are a few reasons for this late-in-the-game gesture, and I’d like to share them with you.

First, I’m a TV junkie.  It doesn’t help that one of my very favorite people is AJ, of TV Rewind and Stalking with the Stars.  Unfortunately, unlike her, I lack DVR technology.  So, last night, my prime time was met with Barack Obama’s 30 minutes of sweet campaign advertisin’.  Normally I wouldn’t watch something like this, but I was working on a freelance project and planning to watch the rest of Game 5 anyway.

I am incredibly emotional lately (details coming in an upcoming article about my experiences giving up Yaz because it’s too expensive), so aspects of this infomercial/Obamamercial hit me especially hard.  I actually found myself tearing up over the older couple in Ohio who can’t afford their prescription drugs.  I think it might have been when the man, who has been retired for 10 years, put on his Wal-Mart name tag.  The older men working at Wal-Mart have always tugged at my heart strings, especially around here where I know they once upon a time had steel industry or manufacturing jobs.  So major points for Obama for getting me all verklempt early on.

I also admired the things Obama had to say about education and children.  Something along the lines of, “No government program can replace a parent’s involvement.”  He mentioned the importance of being involved in children’s educations–from making sure they get to school on time to helping with homework to reading to them.  And Michelle mentioned how great he is with his girls, which cued clips of board games, phone calls and shared laughter.

I wasn’t giving the Obamamercial my full attention, but those key moments did jump out at me, and stuck with me even through this morning.  Not only was the infomercial a friendly look at this issues, it was a break from attack commercials (most of which are perpetuated by John McCain at this point).  Thirty minutes without hearing what a baby-eating socialist Obama is?  Excellent.  And the production quality was excellent, too.  It really distanced itself from the negative campaigns with warm transitions and music that could evoke emotional responses from hormonal viewers such as myself.  Megan discusses the impressiveness of the infomercial’s quality, along with reactions to the estimated cost/cost of network airtime at Jezebel:

When the speech ended and Keith Olbermann said that Obama’s buy on the 7 networks cost him about $5 million dollars, I thought two things: first, that the commercial itself had to cost between $500,000 and $1 million to make; and second, that the sheer amount of earned media that he was going to get out of it was easily going to match that. It’s practically the functional equivalent of getting a Bat-signal and projecting a logo on the moon — maybe you don’t look at the moon that night, but, damn, are you gonna hear about it tomorrow.

Following the Phillies win, which had me pretty happy since I’m from South Central PA (aka “Real America”), Barack Obama appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.  While his infomercial reached to the few undecided left out there and hopefully hit a few GOP supporters waiting for the game to start, his Daily Show appearance spoke to that core young liberal base that will hopefully turn out in record numbers November 4.  Jon Stewart pointed out that his audience might be a little biased, and proceeded to have a really funny conversation with the Illinois Senator.  Obama quipped about those who might not “want to have a beer” with him and even kept Jon on his toes.  But why bother to describe it?  Watch it here:

To wrap up my exciting night of Obama-immersion, I received yet another email begging me for a donation.  I realize that these are database-driven, impersonal communications that I usually put straight into the trash, but this one–combined with my emotional rollercoaster–made me think.

Lindsay – 

The next 6 days are going to be the toughest we’ve seen, and I need your support to reach as many voters as possible.

Donate $5 or more today to strengthen this movement for the final push. 

This campaign is in your hands. 

Thank you for everything you’re doing, 

Barack

During the last election, I was a sophomore in college.  My econ professor encouraged us to go home and vote if we lived close enough to school, so I drove 3 hours to vote for John Kerry.  I also volunteered to call all local Democrats.  I recruited my friend Danielle, and the two of us sat in my living room–me with my cell phone, her with my house phone–calling a long list of people and reminding them to vote.

This year, I don’t have the time (or patience/sanity) to volunteer for the campaign.  This year, it took me too long to get fully behind the candidate to get a yard sign, a bumper sticker, or any public display of Democratic support aside from Facebook and this blog.  So, I figured, I could take $10 out of my Halloween weekend drinking budget and put it to better use.

Afterwards, I felt really good.  I realize my contribution is small–microscopic in the grand scheme of things.  But I feel like I did something, and I hope that my little donation will help bring this country the change it needs.

US Election 2008 |