Buckwheat to Pester Iowans With Muslim-For-President TV Ads
Patriot Games
Sen. Barack Obama to Launch TV Ads in Iowa
NewsMax.com Wires Monday, June 25, 2007
DES MOINES, Iowa -- Democratic Sen. Barack Obama is launching two
biographical television ads this week, focusing on early voting Iowa in the
first commercials of his presidential campaign.
The ads represent a strategic shift for the Obama campaign, which has
focused on grass-roots efforts and now will introduce the candidate to a new
population of voters watching at home.
Candidates typically hold off on advertising during the slow summer months,
but the warp-speed campaign has forced the 2008 contenders to rethink the
traditional approach. Republican Mitt Romney and Democrat Bill Richardson
have run ads in Iowa - and seen their poll numbers increase.
Obama's two biographical spots are just the start of what could be an
unprecedented campaign on television. The Illinois senator has millions of
dollars to spend on advertising along with other campaign activities.
Obama aides planned a conference call Monday to discuss the new commercials,
featuring a Republican lawmaker who worked with Obama in the Illinois State
Legislature and Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe.
Both Tribe and Republican Sen. Kirk Dillard are featured in the new
commercials.
A 60-second commercial, called "Choices," focuses on the decision Obama made
after graduating from Harvard Law School, opting to turn down lucrative
offers from law firms and instead move to Chicago as a community organizer.
The other 30-second spot, titled "Carry," addresses Obama's work in the
Illinois Legislature, where Dillard praises him for pushing ethics
legislation, expanding child care and health coverage and supporting tax
credits for the working poor.
"Senator Obama worked on some of the deepest issues we had and was
successful in a bipartisan way," Dillard says in that ad.
Aides described Tribe, a member of the Harvard law faculty, as a mentor for
Obama. Tribe praises Obama for his decisions after graduating.
"It was inspiring, absolutely inspiring to see someone as brilliant as
Barack Obama, as successful, someone who could have written his ticket on
Wall Street, take all of the talent and all of the learning and decide to
devote it to the community and to make people's lives better," Tribe says in
the commercial.
The Obama campaign is spending a modest amount of money to run his first ads
in Iowa.
A recent poll in Iowa showed Obama bunched at the top with rivals Hillary
Rodham Clinton and John Edwards. His appearances in the state have drawn
large and noisy crowds.
The ads come soon after an extensive mailing, which included a DVD
biographical film on Obama, aides said.