Recently in 2008 Election Category

Here's a peek inside of Barack Obama's Chicago headquarters.  As far as campaign offices go (usually dark, filthy, cramped hovels in leaky basements), these offices are very, very nice and well organized.

 

Obama is Good-looking, his Office is Not from Julia Allison on Vimeo.

 

We haven't addressed John McCain on Polichicks since the election, because we felt that Barack Obama should have his day after his historic win.  But now we want to acknowledge Sen. John McCain, who fought a long and hard campaign for the presidency.

John McCain's concession speech was one of the most moving that we have ever heard.  He commended Obama's accomplishments, acknowledged what Obama's historic victory means to African Americans, expressed sympathy to the Obama family on their loss of Obama's grandmother and encouraged the country to unite behind our new president.

No doubt that had to be a tough speech to make, especially the part where he preaches unity and calls Barack Obama "my president." (We mean, imagine if you had to publicly praise your work frenemy and call her "my boss," moments after she got the promotion you wanted.) But as hard as it must have been, John McCain stepped up to the plate and did what was best for our country.

Now that's "country first." 

 

Barack Obama's historic win and acceptance speech brought back memories of this other historic first. So moving.  And the year was 2002. Watch here.

So last night Barack Obama ran a 30 minute, $4 million infomercial on 7 networks.  We think the ad was an effective one for the Obama camp.  It laid out Obama's plans as president,  offered supporting evidence of his competence and established an emotional connection with those who watched it. 

Obama is a politician who "gets" marketing.   We were impressed by his ability to sell himself, his potential and his policies in the ad.  If the whole White House thing doesn't work out, he definately has a future on QVC or the Home Shopping Network.

 

 

On the fifth day of Christmas, our true loves gave to us...  fiiiive goldren riiings!  Four calling birds, three french hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree.  What did we get on the fifth day before the presedential election?  Well, nothing...  

But we bet Barack Obama and John McCain are giving their campaigns something about now... a win, win, win, fight, fight, fight speech kind of like the one below from Remember the Titans.  (Yeah, we're still on our Titans kick...) 

 

There's been a lot of controversy about shady robocalls lately, but it turns out that John McCain isn't behind all of them...

 

In case you missed it, here's Michelle Obama on Jay Leno.  Yellow outfit purchased online at J.Crew.

 

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Part 2:

Elisabeth Hasselbeck introduced Sarah Palin at a rally in Tampa this weekend. 

"As you can see, Sarah Palin sure is a woman who knows how to dress," Hasselbeck said. "I'm actually personally most impressed, you know, by her accessories, like the flag pin that she wears...."

We noticed that Hasselbeck's speech style, intonation and mannerisms  are almost identical to Sarah Palin's.  Shared speech coach, perhaps? If we weren't watching Hasselbeck, we would think Palin was speaking.  Just an observation...

Anyway, Hasselbeck did well, looked great and got a warm reception from the crowd.  Here's a clip of her speech.

 

Ever wonder whatever happened to the whassup guys from the Budweiser commercial?  Yeah, we never cared either. But here's an update on them anyway...

 

Sarah Palin's emmy-nominated makup artist, Amy Strozzi (pictured on left) was the highest paid campaign consultant in the McCain camp during the month of October.  The McCain campaign paid her $22,800 for the first two weeks of the month. 

Zow!  That's more money than McCain's chief foreign policy advisor and senior communications aide made!

Our first thought on this is that we're not mad at Palin for going the extra mile to look her very best.  We don't even like to go to the grocery store without a little lip gloss, so we certainly wouldn't expect Palin to appear in front of millions without some color.  Besides, as girls who spent more than we should have at Laura Mercier in Neiman's last weekend, who are we to judge? 

Yet when we consider the negative PR effect of looking extravagant and wasteful to voters at a time when people are losing their homes and jobs, the makup artist expenditure doesn't seem like such a smart idea. Add that to the fact that Barack Obama has about 4 times the money in the bank that McCain has, and the makeup artist's salary seems even more wasteful.  

McCain can't afford to spend all that money on makeup instead of, say, advertising and get out the vote efforts. Because according to the polls, McCain's chances of winning this race don't look good.  If the McCain camp keeps prioritizing spending on beauty over voter outreach, Palin's next big speech about lipstick might go a little something like this:  "I may have lost this race, but I looked damn good doing it in Pink Truffle by Chanel."  

Photo above left of Amy Strozzi is from Amy Strozzi's Facebook page.