That's not change, that's more of the same

While it was exquisitely painful watching Biden try and fail to get that line into a call-and-response cadence at the DNC, I think it sums up a successful tactic for Obama. Both McCain and Pailn have been touting themselves as agents of change without batting an eyelash at the irony of belonging to the party that actually set the conditions people want changed. Obama needs to reassert control over that rhetorical stance.

And I think this first ad does pretty well. He may take some hits from commentators on the Right who will do their false indignation thing and call this a mean-spirited attack on McCain's age, but I think the combination of images and message resonates, particular when it arrives on the button with McCain riding shotgun in Bush's golf cart.



Still, it is an attack ad, which I could do without from either side (but notice how I'm not holding my breath). I like this second ad even more - simple, straightforward, and a vision-builder. It had better be just one small piece of a strategy to come - I'll be disappointed if this is the last time I see an Obama ad with him looking into the camera and just telling us who he is. It plays to his strength.



Thanks to HuffPo for pointing both of these out this morning. I'm planning on a lot more ad analysis in coming days, finally putting my (and this is no lie) BS in Advertising degree (I arrived at college with math and science credits that pushed me into the Bachelor of Sciences category) to work.