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Obama Buys Primetime Television Time Before Election

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October 09, 2008 5:53 PM

ABC News' John Berman Reports: Barack Obama is ready for primetime.

The Obama campaign has bought a half hour block of primetime television -- from 8-8:30pm ET -- on Wednesday, Oct. 29, on CBS, NBC, and MSNBC, according to television industry sources.

The bold buy, first reported by the Hollywood Reporter and featured on the Drudge Report, will put the Obama show uninterrupted to American television sets across the country less than one week before election day.  The Obama camp remains in talks with other networks to do the same on other channels.

Evan Tracey, chief operating officer of the Campaign Media Analysis Group or CMAG, estimates that 30 minutes of primetime network television would cost at least $500,000.

Sen. Obama is at greater liberty to make such a large buy late in the election game due in part to his decision to reject public financing of his presidential run -- and the spending limits that come with it -- a move Sen. John McCain has criticized.

"[Obama] said," McCain told ABC News "World News" anchor Charlie Gibson in an interview on Thursday, "He wrote down a piece of paper that he would take public financing for his presidential campaign if I would.  He betrayed the trust of the American people there."

McCain continued blast Obama for forgoing public funds adding, "He looked in the camera twice during the debate with Sen. Clinton and said, 'I will sit down and negotiate with John McCain before I decide to forgo public financing for my campaign.'  He never called me.  He looked in the camera and told the American people something that was patently false."

As the Hollywood Reporter notes in their original report, Reform Party candidate H. Ross Perot bought national television time prior to the 1992 election.

Both Obama and McCain bought advertising during the Olympics and, earlier this year, the Obama camp looked into the possibility of sponsoring a Sprint Cup car in NASCAR race.

ABC News' Tahman Bradley contributed to this report.

October 9, 2008 in Biden, Joe, Clinton, Hillary, McCain, John, Obama, Barack, Palin, Sarah, Vote 2008: Democrats, Vote 2008: Republicans | Permalink | User Comments (977)

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Enough of this William Ayers-Barack Obama link. There's no basis and it's a cheap shot. My family and I made up our minds and we're voting "THAT ONE"!!!

Posted by: Joey P | Oct 9, 2008 6:22:23 PM

Now that ACORN been busted now he wants to go on tv and pander for votes.

Posted by: seeya | Oct 9, 2008 6:22:27 PM

You can always tell when a story is first reported on Drudge. It brings out every scumbag in America.

Posted by: jim | Oct 9, 2008 6:22:49 PM

How will he explain his member ship in THE NEW PARTY 1992 to 1998?

Archives prove Obama was a New Party member

Thomas Lifson
Another piece in the puzzle of Barack Obama has been revealed, greatly
strengthening the picture of a man groomed by an older generation of radical
leftists for insertion into the American political process, trading on good
looks, brains, educational pedigree, and the desire of the vast majority of
the voting public to right the historical racial wrongs of the land.


The New Party was a radical left organization, established in 1992, to
amalgamate far left groups and push the United States into socialism by
forcing the Democratic Party to the left. It was an attempt to regroup the
forces on the left in a new strategy to take power, burrowing from within.
The party only lasted until 1998, when its strategy of "fusion" failed to
withstand a Supreme Court ruling, but after, but the membership, including
Barack Obama, continued to move the Democrats leftward with spectacular
success.

Erick Erickson, editor of RedState, explained fusion in a Human Events
article :


Fusion is a pretty simple concept. A candidate could run as both a
Democrat and a New Party member to signal the candidate was, in fact, a
left-leaning candidate, or at least not a center-left DLC type candidate. If
the candidate -- let's call him Barack Obama -- received only 500 votes in
the Democratic Party against another candidate who received 1000 votes,
Obama would clearly not be the nominee. But, if Obama also received 600
votes from the New Party, Obama's New Party votes and Democratic votes would
be fused. He would be the Democratic nominee with 1100 votes.
The fusion idea set off a number of third parties, but the New Party was probably the most successful. A March 22, 1998 In These Times article by John Nichols showed just how successful. "After six years, the party has built what is arguably the most sophisticated left-leaning political operation the country has seen since the decline of the Farmer-Labor, Progressive and Non-Partisan League groupings of the early part of the century .... In 1996, it helped Chicago's Danny Davis, a New Party member, win a Democratic congressional primary, thereby assuring his election in the majority-black district .... The threat of losing New Party support, or of the New Party running its own candidates against conservative Democrats, would begin a process of forcing the political process to the left, [Joel]
Rogers argued."
Fusion, fortunately for the country, died in 1997. William
Rehnquist, writing for a 6-3 Supreme Court, found the concept was not a
protected constitutional right. It was two years too late to stop Obama.
J. Brown of Politically Drunk on Power has dug up http://politicallydrunk.blogspot.com/2008/10/web-archives-confirm-barack-ob
ama-was.html> multiple documentary sources (with hyperlinks) proving that
Barack Obama was a member of the New Party, despite alleged attempts to
cover up his tracks by scrubbing evidence. He or she deserves tremendous
praise for doing this detective work.
Obama's career bears many signs of being helped along by the radical left.
At the critical moment when he entered electoral politics, he was part of a
movement to take over an established political party and dirct it to the
task of building a socialist America.
Hat tip: Rocco DiPippo

Posted by: Gene | Oct 9, 2008 6:23:01 PM

WOW, Anyone with one active braincell knows that Barack Obama is the better choice for the American people. All you rascists out there who can't turn the channel from FOX Noise need to educate yourselves. Sarah Palin is a joke and an insult to every woman in the country. McCain is just a doddering old fool with obvious dementia issues.

Posted by: John McCain is a liar. | Oct 9, 2008 6:23:16 PM

david: Can you refute anything Karen just said? Did you look any of it up? I think you better stick to the McCain kool-aid. It goes down smooth and usually contains less than 1 calorie of truth. What Karen's drinking is way too strong for you.

Posted by: Hokie Freak | Oct 9, 2008 6:23:19 PM

Wow....just saw the WI rally today and a brave young black guy stood up and said when are you going to ask about Obama's associations? The audience is sick of the liberal media controlling this thing, from day one with Hillary even. I think this is going to have to be a "Flight 93" kind of thing where some good Americans are going to have to rush the cockpit before they try to crash into the Capitol.....that is what I see this election as.....and we need to take them down. AMERICAN FREEDOM FIGHTERS....McCAIN/PALIN ALL THE WAY.

Posted by: Hope, Change, Hate, Nobama '08 | Oct 9, 2008 6:23:59 PM

THESE PEOPLE THAT JOHN MCCAIN AND SARAH PALIN HAVE PAID OR ENCOURAGED TO ATTEND THEIR RALLYS ARE ANGRY JUST LIKE THEM. IT IS A SAD DAY IN AMERICA THAT A MAN THAT WANTS TO BE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES STANDS BEFORE THE PEOPLE AND HELP PROMOTE THEIR ANGER. THIS IS SAD FOR ALL THE GOOD PEOPLE THAT STILL EXIST IN THIS NATION.

Posted by: sara | Oct 9, 2008 6:24:01 PM

Poor Cynics,

About to commit suicide, huh? Can't stop "THAT ONE", can you?

"THAT ONE" just keeps drinking your milkshakes, doesn't he?

"THAT ONE" just keeps making you pull plug after plug of hair from your head, doesn't he?

"THAT ONE" will be POTUS, won't he?

My Fellow Prisoners.......
Put some dirt on me. I'M A POLITICAL DEAD MAN WALKING.
John McChicken McCain.

POTUS OBAMA - IT'S A LOCK

Posted by: Nat Turner | Oct 9, 2008 6:24:04 PM

It is NOT complicated. DEMAND a VOTING NETWORK so that you can vote on REAL issues, NOT on what parasite gets to such your blood. Current people in power will NOT allow citizens to vote on issues since they are making huge profits off the statuesque. People MUST demand change by NOT voting in elections, thereby forcing the government to let citizens vote on issues that the current government WILL NEVER allow. Such as:
-Financially independent government (NO TAXES)
-Laws (no politicians)
-Crime (no lawyers & judges)
-Foreign Policy (no diplomats)
-Who owns non-renewable resources (the most greedy or everyone)
-Copyright laws
-Environment protection
-Government Income
-Government Spending
-Home mortgages
-Honest Government
-Less paper work
-One government (no national, state, county, and city – just the voting network)
-Standards
-Unemployment
-War (sending soldiers or bringing them home)
-Get paid for reading SPAM & JUNK mail

Posted by: Black Cat | Oct 9, 2008 6:24:40 PM

Jessica, I am going to join you in your prayers. God is good - he's not going to let us down. Enough is enough and 8 years is enough.

Posted by: Joey P | Oct 9, 2008 6:24:56 PM

LOL, it's funny how there are like... 4 of you typing the same absurd comments.

Ayers? Who cares? Only the 4 of you and Sean Hannity, that's who. Go back under your rocks and let the smart people run things around here.

Posted by: King | Oct 9, 2008 6:25:02 PM

Obama onced worked for ACORN this is shady like the nominee. Just like his wife working with William Ayers wife, but he didnt know they bombed the Pentagon. Ayers wife was on the FBI's most wanted list.

Posted by: Curious George | Oct 9, 2008 6:25:29 PM

What ever happened to the email issue? OH thats right it was discovered the hacker was the son of a democratic politician so a media blackout has occurred.

The blatent bias against the parties and candidates makes me want to puke.

Posted by: Cryos | Oct 9, 2008 6:25:42 PM

Karen, The Ayers effect is actually working. I don't think NObama would feel the need to buy airtime on 3 major networks if he was truly confident he had this election in the bag. That is a defensive posture to the Ayers issue.

Posted by: David | Oct 9, 2008 6:26:52 PM

White House for sale to the highest bidder. Democrats are weapons of mass destruction. Destroying our economy to make a point that they dont like W. What a bunch of losers. Civil war is coming.

Posted by: Sitting Back and watching | Oct 9, 2008 6:28:52 PM

I know that party line liberals won't understand this and will disagree, but Obamas associations matter more than McCain. McCain has a long standing record and a record is the best thing to judge a politician on.

Obama has no such record. Knowing you can't trust politicians to do what they say you have to resort to judging character and judgement. This brings associations into play. I guess it doesn't bother liberals that Obamas mentors and associates are communists, marxists, socialists and terrorists since Obama is a democrat. All they want is a free lunch.

Posted by: Cryos | Oct 9, 2008 6:29:37 PM

The Dow is below 9000.
We are fighting a two front war. Unemployment is rising.
Inflationary pressures are building.
We have a 10 Trillion dollar debt.
The housing market has tanked.
The financial markets have tanked.
Health Care is skyrocketing.
Social Security is going broke.

No one cares about your conspiracy theories. Every time the Republicans attack, Obama goes up in the polls.

America needs a leader, not smears. We've been hearing the same BS for months. In fact, the same Republican tactics are used in every election. It's the "we offer nothing", but listen to this accusation..." strategy.

Last week Obama ran 36% negative ads, McCain ran 100%.

And how'd that work for McCain?

I would like McCain and Palin to PLEASE keep talking about Ayres. Obama will talk about how he will help this nation.

McCain and Parrot will keep smearing and offer no solutions - because they know they have none. Obama will continue to show leadership.

And we'll see a LANDSLIDE on November 4th!

Posted by: Obama/Biden - the positive choice! | Oct 9, 2008 6:29:59 PM

Are some of you rocket scientists watching TV with the sound turned down again? The pundits, analysts--everyone--have already determined that ACORN's issues have nothing to do with Obama.

However, the unethical and corrupt actions of McCain (Keating 5) and Palin (Troopergate) have everything to do with these two dishonest people.

Posted by: dvrc | Oct 9, 2008 6:30:51 PM

ACORN? Ayers? Are you kidding me?

LOL, get with it!! The economy is crumbling and you think this petty sh!t is important?

You are a disgrance and a danger to this nation with your bullsh!t GOP nonsense and total negligence of your responsibility.

Posted by: Seriously | Oct 9, 2008 6:31:29 PM

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