Closing arguments: The end is nigh

"The candidates are making their final pitches to the electorate“INFOMERCIALS” usually feature over-the-hill “actors” hawking improbable products in the small hours. Barack Obama’s infomercial on October 29th lasted for 30 minutes, appeared at 8pm on seven channels, including CBS and NBC, and featured state-of-the-art production techniques. Mr Obama focused on bread-and-butter issues—the recent Wall Street crash (which he described as a verdict on eight years of failed economic policies from, guess who, the Republicans), rising health-care costs, home foreclosures, disappearing jobs and stagnating incomes—and he illustrated them by telling the story of various families he had met on the stump. He also tried to counter his airy-fairy image telling us, in as much detail as the format would permit, how he planned to deal with these problems. ..." (2008-10-30)

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