Video: Obama’s £1.9m ad dominates US primetime
The Democrat candidate for President of the United States bought half an hour of airtime yesterday evening to try to convince undecided voters to back him in next week’s election.
Barack Obama’s thirty minute infomercial was broadcast simultaneously on Fox, CBS and NBC and the baseball World Series final was delayed by a quarter of an hour as a result.
The ad, which is estimated to have cost £1.9m, featured members of the public who support his candidacy and told the life story of the candidate, who 10% of Americans think is a Muslim.
His Republican opponent, Senator John McCain, has not been able to raise anywhere near as much money as Barack Obama, who is not constrained by federal funding.
In the last month more than 600,000 first time donors gave money to the Obama campaign.
“No one will delay the World Series game with an infomercial when I’m President,” said Senator McCain, who also accused his rival of going back on a promise to take federal funds for his campaign, which limits the amount that can be raised.
The Obama campaign raised $150m (£86m) in September, a record amount.
The junior Senator from Illinios has accumulated more than $600m in the course of the campaign.
Yesterday more than 35,000 people turned out on an unseasonably cold night in Florida came to see Bill Clinton appear with Senator Obama for the first time, while Senator McCain is finding it increasingly difficult to get his message across.
All opinion polls place the Democrat with around 50% of likely voters. Americans will elect a new President on November 4th.
As politican pundits discuss the makeup of Obama’s cabinet, Senator McCain’s decision to ask the inexperienced Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, to be his running mate is now seen as one of the worst of the campaign.
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell summed up the views of many when he backed Barack Obama and said:
“I don’t believe she is ready to be President of the United States. And so that raised in my mind some question as to the judgement that Senator McCain made.”
