What did most people think about Obama’s ‘Soviet Style’ Infomercial last night? From the Savage Blog

October 30th, 2008

That it was both boring and depressing. Here is a funny take on the production of this half hour “special”, given by some ‘infomercial’ experts:

Two leading infomercial stars agree: Barack Obama’s half-hour self-promotion last night was a flop.

“I don’t see enough smiling. Doom and gloom
totally,” said Anthony Sullivan, one of the biggest names in infomercial history.

“I feel depressed right now,” added Sullivan, an Englishman famous for his infomercials touting the Swivel Sweeper and Smart Chopper. The only thing saving Obama, Sullivan said, was when the candidate appeared live at the end speaking at a rally in Florida.

“I think it needed it. I was about to throw myself through a window because it was depressing,” Sullivan said.

He and AJ Khubani, who has produced infomercials for 25 years, said Obama also fell short of offering solutions to the dire problems he laid out.

“I didn’t see a payoff. Classic infomercial is you show the before and you show the after. I didn’t see the music or the crashing waves of the Pacific,” Sullivan said.

He joked the producer “needs a spanking” for lacking optimism.

Khubani said: “Every infomercial lays out common problems, whether it’s a flabby belly or acne, and then it gives a solution. In this case the solution is Obama.”

But Obama didn’t pitch the product - himself - convincingly enough, he argued.

“We always spend much more time on the solution than the problem and he did the opposite,” Khubani added.

Here is what the Associated Press wrote about it, an entity that is clearly in Obama’s pocket:

WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was less than upfront in his half-hour commercial Wednesday night about the costs of his programs and the crushing budget pressures he would face in office.

Obama’s assertion that “I’ve offered spending cuts above and beyond” the expense of his promises is accepted only by his partisans. His vow to save money by “eliminating programs that don’t work” masks his failure throughout the campaign to specify what those programs are — beyond the withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

A sampling of what voters heard in the ad, and what he didn’t tell them:

THE SPIN: “That’s why my health care plan includes improving information technology, requires coverage for preventive care and pre-existing conditions and lowers health care costs for the typical family by $2,500 a year.”

THE FACTS: His plan does not lower premiums by $2,500, or any set amount. Obama hopes that by spending $50 billion over five years on electronic medical records and by improving access to proven disease management programs, among other steps, consumers will end up saving money. He uses an optimistic analysis to suggest cost reductions in national health care spending could amount to the equivalent of $2,500 for a family of four. Many economists are skeptical those savings can be achieved, but even if they are, it’s not a certainty that every dollar would be passed on to consumers in the form of lower premiums.

THE SPIN: “I also believe every American has a right to affordable health care.”

THE FACTS: That belief should not be confused with a guarantee of health coverage for all. He makes no such promise. Obama hinted as much in the ad when he said about the problem of the uninsured: “I want to start doing something about it.” He would mandate coverage for children but not adults. His program is aimed at making insurance more affordable by offering the choice of government-subsidized coverage similar to that in a plan for federal employees and other steps, including requiring larger employers to share costs of insuring workers.

THE SPIN: “I’ve offered spending cuts above and beyond their cost.”

THE FACTS: Independent analysts say both Obama and Republican John McCain would deepen the deficit. The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates Obama’s policy proposals would add a net $428 billion to the deficit over four years — and that analysis accepts the savings he claims from spending cuts. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, whose other findings have been quoted approvingly by the Obama campaign, says: “Both John McCain and Barack Obama have proposed tax plans that would substantially increase the national debt over the next 10 years.” The analysis goes on to say: “Neither candidate’s plan would significantly increase economic growth unless offset by spending cuts or tax increases that the campaigns have not specified.”

THE SPIN: “Here’s what I’ll do. Cut taxes for every working family making less than $200,000 a year. Give businesses a tax credit for every new employee that they hire right here in the U.S. over the next two years and eliminate tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. Help homeowners who are making a good faith effort to pay their mortgages, by freezing foreclosures for 90 days. And just like after 9-11, we’ll provide low-cost loans to help small businesses pay their workers and keep their doors open. “

THE FACTS: His proposals — the tax cuts, the low-cost loans, the $15 billion a year he promises for alternative energy, and more — cost money, and the country could be facing a record $1 trillion deficit next year. Indeed, Obama recently acknowledged — although not in his commercial — that: “The next president will have to scale back his agenda and some of his proposals.”

When your own buddies believe that your TV spot was garbage, you are in deep trouble.

But it is quite understandable why Obama took this gloomy approach. The only thing he has going for him is American misery and fear. Without these factors, no citizen in their right mind would vote for a terrorist sympathizing Marxist Leninist with a Messiah complex. His only effective pitch, throughout this election, has been his “I am different” bid, which itself only works if “Armageddon” might be close on arrival.

The problem Obama is now facing is that most people are starting to get their sobriety back. And all of the sudden, they are starting to realize that there is a flat out COMMUNIST, with plenty of Islamic Fundamentalist friends, about to take over the White House.

So I believe that Obama’s Infomercial last night will actually backfire on him, in a similar fashion to his “world tour” and “Greek columns”, and it will finally make most Americans feel ’sick to their stomach’ of having this leftist fruit cake spending so much money to sell
himself to them.

All of these events spell a great omen for John McCain (and America) on November 4th.