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Reporting and analysis from ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent and "This Week" Host George Stephanopoulos
George Stephanopoulos reports on events in politics, Congress and the White House for ABCNews, on the air and online. He interviews top newsmakers, discusses the events of the week and looks to the week ahead each Sunday on 'This Week.'
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Obama's Prime Time TV Pitch
October 28, 2008 9:55 PM
Barack Obama will make his closing arguments in a half-hour of prime time television Wednesday night.
This is going to be more like a television show, rather than a speech, top Obama campaign officials tell ABC News.
We're going to see a "lively half-hour of television," one Obama aide told ABC News, speaking only half tongue-in-cheek.
Watch George Stephanopoulos' analysis of the campaign tonight on Nightline tonight at 11:35pm ET on ABC
Obama sources say we're likely to see Obama at the top of the half hour program and at the bottom of the show talking about his agenda.
However the rest of the time you might see other people, like a Warren Buffett or a Colin Powell, and other people the Obama campaign calls "validators" to give testimony on why Americans should vote for Obama.
The last presidential candidate who had this kind of money to run a prime time TV address was Ross Perot, who ran as a third-party candidate in 1992 and 1996.
In his infomercial, Perot tried to appeal to voters on the economy, saying "Let's raise the hood and go to work, let's diagnose the problem. I can tell you before we look at the engine, a engine tune-up won't fix it,"
But unlike Perot, we're not likely to see Obama sitting behind a desk for a half hour. Like Perot, Obama is going to focus more on his policy agenda, and less on his biography.
The McCain campaign thinks this half hour may be a reprise of Obama's Berlin speech, and they argue it could go a little too far and will be a little presumptuous.
Spending millions of his vast campaign war chest, Obama's program will be broadcast on CBS, NBC, MSNBC and Fox at 8p.m. on Wednesday night.
It's unclear whether Obama will be making any new arguments. He'll likely be repeating the same things he has said before but may reach voters who have been checked out of the election.
This may reach voters who haven't been paying that much attention to the campaign. On the whole they are less partisan, more independent and moderate.
Obama is leading John McCain 52-45 percent in the latest ABC News/Washington Post daily tracking poll.
Our latest ABC News/Washington Post poll finds there is only about 2 percent of Americans who are truly undecided, and those people are not likely to vote.
There is another group of about 10 percent voters called "movable voters" who tell pollsters that they've made their decision but could change their minds.
This is the group that McCain is really hoping to reach over the next six days.
The profile of the ideal McCain voter right now is an older, white woman who is stressed economically, a top McCain aide tells ABC News. These voters may be pulled toward Obama on economic issues but are leaning toward McCain on social issues and like his war-hero, prisoner-of-war biography.
The McCain campaign is hoping that if these people have held off from supporting Obama for this long, they're not likely to now.
However McCain really has to reach in to more than just undecided voters right now. He really has to move and change some minds in these next five days.
The McCain campaign is buoyed by some movement in the polls toward him on the issue of the economy, but he still has a long ways to go with little under a week left.
McCain has eroded some of Obama's lead in voter trust to handle the economy but Obama still leads his Republican rival by 9 percentage points, according to the latest ABC/Post daily tracking poll, down from an 18 point lead a week ago.
--George Stephanopoulos
October 28, 2008 in Barack Obama | Permalink | Share | User Comments (479)
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Good for ABC for not airing this program. I think it is in bad taste that Mr. Obama used the time slot of the World Series to do his program. He could have chosen any other time and did not. I appreciate ABC for not airing this.
Posted by: D Adams | Oct 28, 2008 10:13:19 PM
Just in: 2 Ohio government employees, 1 an obama donor have been charged in the records snooping case of "joe the Plumber" they are now being questioned as to who they wre doing the undercover work for'
Panic Attack at Dailykos.. the kiddies are on medication now after seein the Gallup poll showing only a 2 point spread between Obama and McCain lmao
Posted by: The truth hurts | Oct 28, 2008 10:14:19 PM
McCain doesnt have a clue on what to do about the Economy, and you can tell it.A vote for McCain is like voting for Bush. We need a change and his name is Obama!
Posted by: Demo Rules | Oct 28, 2008 10:14:35 PM
please get out and vote!!!! take others with you to vote. vote early!!!
Posted by: pleasevote | Oct 28, 2008 10:16:12 PM
ABC is and has been supporting Obama in free publicity all of the time this year. Not sure I would have any faith in a poll acquire by this organization. Also what jobs are the BIG TIME supporters at ABC looking for in the new administration.
Posted by: William | Oct 28, 2008 10:16:12 PM
Obama is the man!
Posted by: JJ | Oct 28, 2008 10:17:53 PM
He is avoiding questions....
Posted by: Christina Wade | Oct 28, 2008 10:18:06 PM
McCain=4 more years of Bush's policy's, or Obama and a true change.
Posted by: Demo Rules | Oct 28, 2008 10:19:37 PM
You mean SHE is avoiding questions. I still don't know where Palin stands on any issues besides social issues.
Posted by: JJ | Oct 28, 2008 10:20:08 PM
- STOP THE MADNESS - VOTE FOR CHANGE - 2008
Posted by: Targaray | Oct 28, 2008 10:22:00 PM
> Good for ABC for not airing this program.
Wow, you are solely ignorant or just plain dumb. ABC asked Obama to buy air time and Obama said forget it. Hope you enjoy that rerun of "Pushing Daisies"
Posted by: FactCheck | Oct 28, 2008 10:23:05 PM
How does Obama explain this?
According to Snopes.com, Princeton was requested to put a 'restriction' on distribution
of any copies of the thesis of Michelle Obama (a/k/a/ Michelle laVaughn Robinson) saying
it could not be made available until November 5, 2008 but when it was published on a
political website they decided they would lift the restriction.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/thesis.asp
Posted by: mwintx | Oct 28, 2008 10:23:19 PM
Today Bush administration is contemplating an idea of sittind down and talking with Mullah Omar and the talibans heeding to Petraeus.What does that all mean ?
Posted by: moderaterepublican | Oct 28, 2008 10:23:50 PM
Can someone explain socialism to me? Social Security, Medicare, Fannie Mae, government schools, bailouts....seems like we have been a socialized country for decades but someone forgot to tell us. I'm not sure how either candidate is going to slow down the advancement of socialism in our country. The conversation may have to shift in order to have an effective government. If a Communist nation like China can thrive in this global market I'm thinking the U.S. will be okay as a quasi-Socialist/Capitalist nation.
Posted by: A Vet | Oct 28, 2008 10:24:08 PM
This 1/2 hour show is merely icing on the cake. Obama WILL be the next President and I an elated.
Posted by: Marjorie Tadeo | Oct 28, 2008 10:27:32 PM
Exactly how will Obama fix the economy? Tax the middle class and successful to dole out to the non-working, unproductive welfare people?
Posted by: Jason | Oct 28, 2008 10:28:31 PM
All you haters if McCain had the 30 min. spots you'd be ok with it. Rethugs are hyporcrites,steal elections, are ignorant and racist.We've lived under you rule long enough.Do America a favor and leave if Obama is elected. After all we lived under the Presidency of a murderer and a liar for 8 years.
Posted by: Didi | Oct 28, 2008 10:28:38 PM
This guy just has an answer for everything. Typical lawyer. He has left himself PLENTY of loopholes. Like a good lawyer does. When he raises your taxes he's going to tell you "now what I meant was..." And I feel bad for the people that have voted early for BHO. Khalidi is finally rearing its ugly head. But good thing the media is in the tank for BHO - he may get lucky and nobody will see it til after election day.
Posted by: jody | Oct 28, 2008 10:28:39 PM
But unlike Perot, we're not likely to see Obama sitting behind a desk for a half hour. Like Perot, Obama is going to focus more on his policy agenda, and less on his biography.
duh. Obama has been trying to hide his biography this whole campaign. And his agenda for America (the one he will talk about, anyway) will hide his real agenda to give reparations for slavery, send millions to Africa for AIDS and draught relief, redistribute wealth, raise every federal tax he can find, and penalize success to "lift" the poor.
Posted by: cinkid56 | Oct 28, 2008 10:32:18 PM
I agree with D Adams. Baseball is way more important than who our President is going to be. F#$%in' A. I think we found Joe Six-Pack and he is D Adams.
Posted by: mudge007 | Oct 28, 2008 10:32:39 PM
Take others to vote with you Democrats. It isnt over until election day. If they vote help others vote on election day. Get out for Mr Obama.
Posted by: Chris | Oct 28, 2008 10:32:56 PM
Obama is biggest spender of your saved money, he does not care of saving your money, he just spend and he will do the same way in the US government if he was elected. He is too dangerous to our country future.*****Rashid Khalidi Photo: Another Questionable Barack Obama Friendship***
by Jim Brogan
The Post Chronicle
October 28, 2008
http://www.postchronicle.com/commentary/article_212181989.shtml
Rashid Khalidi is a friend of Barack Obama. In fact, Khalidi and his wife used to babysit for Barack and Michelle Obama. Why is that significant?
The National Review Online's Andrew McCarthy has a great piece breaking it down. There is no doubt that it would be making headlines in the mainstream media if it were about a Republican.
Apparently, in 2003, the then llinois state senator, attended a party for Rashid Khalidi. Nothing too harmless right? Wait, it gets better.
Khalidi's friends were seeing him off as he left his post as a professor at the University of Chicago to go on to Columbia University.
As luck would have it, Khalidi was the spokesman for Yasser Arafat when he headed up the PLO, and surprise, surprise, He is also an outspoken vocal critic of Israel.
At this event a Palestinian American reportedly read a poem which accused the Israelis of terrorism in their treatment of Palestinians, and criticized U.S. support of Israel.
But it wasn't just that Obama attended the gathering, its the glowing testimonial he poured on Khalidi, as did Bill Ayers. Did we mention he was also in attendence?
Here are some excerpts from a "Los Angeles Times" story back in April about the event via OneNewsNow.com.
"A special tribute came from Khalidi's friend and frequent dinner companion, the young state Sen. Barack Obama. Speaking to the crowd, Obama reminisced about meals prepared by Khalidi's wife, Mona, and conversations that had challenged his thinking.
"His many talks with the Khalidis, Obama said, had been ‘consistent reminders to me of my own blind spots and my own biases…It's for that reason that I'm hoping that, for many years to come, we continue that conversation – a conversation that is necessary not just around Mona and Rashid's dinner table,' but around ‘this entire world…'
And then there is the little issue about a "tape"
"The event was videotaped, and a copy of the tape was obtained by The Times."
An indignant McCarthy asks why this videotape hasn't been released.
Bio: Khalidi was born in New York to a Palestinian father and a Lebanese mother, according to his Wikipedia page. He received a B.A. from Yale University, where he was a member of Wolf's Head Society, in 1970, and a D. Phil. from Oxford University in 1974 and spent many years as a professor and director of both the Center for Middle Eastern Studies and the Center for International Studies at the University of Chicago before joining the Columbia faculty. He has also taught at Georgetown University, Lebanese University, and the American University of Beirut.
Khalidi is married to Mona Khalidi, former President of the Arab American Action Network.
The Khalidis and Obamas are good friends. In his capacity as a director of the Woods Fund, Barack Obama in 2001 and 2002 steered $75,000 to the Arab American Action Network, reports Town Hall.
According to an Times account of the dinner, Obama speaks of the fact that he and Michelle had been frequent dinner guests at the Khalidi home and that the Khalidis had even baby-sat for the Obama girls.
Posted by: Ed | Oct 28, 2008 10:34:25 PM
Next Bush/McCain/Palin Political Gimmick to BACKFIRE!!!
___ Sarah Palin was not actually pregnant with Trig last year after all...
FACT:
7 days before the general election, a seemingly very healthy Sarah Palin still has NOT released her medical records, what's up with that???
Posted by: Targaray | Oct 28, 2008 10:34:42 PM
McCain is avoiding the issue. He is using fear tactics and smears and is trying to paint Obama as a radical. Yet Obama's economic team consists of Warren Buffet, Robert Ruben, and Paul Volker, well respected and in the center, including the most respected former Secreatary Treasurer and Fed Chief.
Posted by: Nate | Oct 28, 2008 10:35:04 PM
The way I see it, why would anyone need to tune in to listen to George analyze this campaign? What a colossal waste of time. If you have read his columns you already know where we stands and how he sees things.
Posted by: Bea | Oct 28, 2008 10:35:13 PM
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