by Lone Shark
If it isn’t evident already, it should be- Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign is going to be pretty straightforward, which is to say that his campaign intends to summon an epic public relations tsunami that spews as much misinformation and half truths as widely as possible in hopes that 50.1% of voters won’t be smart enough to figure it all out.
In contrast to 2008 where Obama’s advertising strategy featured his extraordinarily hyped public image running on cliched promises of “hope and change” alongside an intentionally murky agenda, this time around Obama is betting the house that just enough of the American public is downright ignorant and incapable of the least bit of intellectual curiosity to ascertain if whatever the campaign happens to claim comes anywhere near to being a truthful claim that is grounded in fact.
Do you think the 2nd Amendment will be destroyed by the Biden Administration?(2)
The campaigner-in-chief’s first 30 second TV-ad which is now on the air in the Tampa Market is a pretty good indicator of what we can expect from the campaign’s “issue-ads”- a series of misleading claims on energy and gas prices that is out and out laughable.
The spot features Obama claiming that under his administration, “domestic oil production is at an eight year high,” a statement which while technically true is also wildly misleading were it not for the fact that the oil production Obama is primarily referring to actually emanates from private lands that he has no control over and not from federal lands where his policies have actually decreased drilling. In fact, the Heritage Foundation has found that fossil fuel production on federal lands is at a nine year low.And those “tax breaks” that Obama rails about ending for “Big Oil” are actually smaller tax deductions than similar ones that other industries have carved out for themselves– so Obama’s hankering to raise taxes on oil companies even as gas prices continue to rise. Too bad there isn’t any correlation between naked populism and lower prices at the pump.
Oh, and about those higher mileage standards and CAFE Standards that Obama brags about in the spot- unfortunately, those mandates which force domestic automobile manufacturers to build lighter cars results in approximately 2000 more fatalities annually on American roads- a fact that will likely be ignored by all candidates, as there are far too many people who mindlessly clamor for lighter cars and fuel economy without regard for the safety of automobile passengers.
The ad is ironically entitled “Remember” and you can watch it below-
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Obama believes that unpopular public policy, misgovernment, and even the most naked cronyism and corruption (i.e. Solyndra) aren’t deal breakers for the majority of American voters. He’s even running a campaign for re-election to the Presidency that would impress Hugo Chavez for its brazenness rather than make any effort to conceal just where he true political instincts lie. But when you’ve got a compliant media on your side, Obama knows that’s half the battle- the question is just how systemic our nation’s apathy and ignorance is that would otherwise serve as a buffer against Obama’s hilariously naked propaganda.Rest assured, we will see many more issue-ads from Obama throughout this campaign that will focus the viewer’s attention on small factoids while they simultaneously ignore far more inconvenient data and ancillary facts that undermine any claim to validity that the campaign’s spinmeisters will assuredly make.
