Obama Rallies The Troops, With Better Production Values

The White House has struggled to keep the grassroots momentum behind the Obama For America. The last time Obama spoke directly to the troops over YouTube, it looked like this:

Obama might just as well have been giving a eulogy. Yesterday, Organizing for America released a new video, shot on the road, backstage at an event in Philadelphia. Not only is the message more upbeat, and the camerawork and setting more interesting, but the President looks a bit more like his old campaign self. It even looks like he was speaking off the cuff, without a teleprompter.

Related Topics: organizing for america, Barack Obama
  • Latest on Swampland

    Pete Souza / The White House via Getty Images

    Political Picures of the Week, May 18-25

    TIME’s photo editors bring you the best pictures of the past week from the Beltway and beyond.

    Obama Administration Blocks Global Health Fund To Fight Disease In Developing NationsHuffPost Politics

    From left: AP; ABACAUSA

    The Phony War: Obama and Romney Are Debating Character, Not Policy

    More than five months from Election Day, the back-and-forth about Mitt Romney’s record at Bain already feels played out. Unfortunately, there’s good reason to expect the campaign continues in this vein indefinitely. Neither Barack Obama nor Mitt Romney are terribly interested in dwelling on policy platforms. Romney’s plan to slash spending and keep taxes low on the wealthy isn’t especially popular, at least not at any level of detail beyond a blithe promise to shrink the deficit. Meanwhile, Obama’s signature first-term achievements, like health care, the stimulus and Wall Street reform, are all unpopular or tricky to sell. (The Dodd-Frank bill is the most popular of these, but hyping it means offending wealthy donors.) So what we’re getting instead is a superficial duel about character–and, worse, one that’s based on the largely false premise that the better man can better “manage” the economy back to health.

  • Paul-no not that one

    “It even looks like he was speaking off the cuff, without a teleprompter.”
    .
    Is there any right wing meme that doesn’t become part of the media lexicon?
    .
    Crowely with his “Obamacare” and now the silly teleprompter stuff.

  • kathy

    I’ve generally ignored my nearly daily OFA emails, because I don’t have a cause to worry in VT, and in I were to give any money (which I don’t have at the moment) I’d probably target it to specific Democrats.

    When 2012 rolls around I’m ready to dig right in as before, make phone calls and donate my saved up pennies.

  • http://redstatedebate.wordpress.com redstatedebate

    Even looks like he was speaking without a teleprompter lol! Here is what he looks like speaking off the cuff http://conservativeblogscentral.blogspot.com/2010/09/bean-and-wieners-obama-voter-wakes-up.html

  • kevin

    Even if you’re in a reliably blue area of the country, there are still embattled candidates elsewhere who could use your help, no matter how small the donation might be.
    .
    Your congressman might not be in danger, but if the Republicans retake the House and enact their agenda of non-stop investigations and a government shutdown, his or her sanity will be in danger for sure. Yours too, I’d imagine.
    .
    2010 will set the stage for 2012 in a big way. Don’t wait too late to spend those pennies.

  • kevin

    No, here’s what he looks like speaking off the cuff — wiping the floor with the entire House GOP.
    .

  • Ike Jakson

    It’s too little too late. The rats know when to leave and they don’t wait for …. I am sure that you all know the old cliché.

  • earljr1

    In your quest to achieve socialism, kathy? What a sad, sad refrain. American citizens donating their saved up pennies so “entitlement” becomes a way of life. It only took 20 months of stark despair to enlighten Americans on the absurdity of being governed from the left. Now, under the harsh lights of reality, we see the chicanery and clueless leadership being offered by your political persuasion and are now prepared to make sweeping changes. You and your ilk will blindly follow Obama off the cliff, the rest of us will roll up our sleeves and try to repair the damage he has done.

  • afguy

    “Better Production Values”, huh?
    .
    Maybe he needs a few props in the background to make it better.
    .
    How about a big honkin’ aircraft carrier with a banner that says “‘Way to Go” or “Mission Accomplished” or somethin’ like that…
    .
    Too “over the top”? Waste of taxpayer money on a political stunt? Or. worst of all… maybe, already been done but by somebody else. Just can’t remember who that was though…
    .
    Perhaps a photo op in front of an F-22 somewhere…
    .
    How about keeping those troops out of wars that aren’t absolutely necessary and taking care of them when they need help on return?
    .
    What a “backdrop” THAT would be…

  • kevin

    Earl’s comments read better if you imagine Lee Greenwood playing in the background.
    .
    Also, it helps if you’re dumb enough to think that Obama caused the economic mess we’re currently in, or that any of his solutions to Republican-created problems is even remotely close to socialism.
    .
    If you hit yourself in the head with a hammer, you can probably dumb yourself down to that level. I’m pretty sure that’s what happened to textee.

  • stuartzechman

    Michael Scherer:
    .
    Glenn Greenwald has a big “Donate” button next to his column over at Salon.com.
    .
    http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/
    .
    How do you go about getting something like that up on WordPress for you pro writers here at Swampland, so we can express our financial support for all of the work you do, Michael Scherer?
    .
    WordPress themselves say that it’s mindbogglingly easy:
    .
    http://en.support.wordpress.com/paypal/
    .
    Well?
    .
    What can I say to convince you to allow me to give you my money, Michael Scherer?
    .
    Why is this so hard?

  • http://twitter.com/michaelscherer Michael Scherer

    Ha. Editors. Are you reading?
    .
    Not likely. In the meantime, encourage your friends to subscribe to TIME magazine, or buy the iPad app. We are a good magazine. That is enough.

  • liberalmeltdown

    You call this rallying the troops??? He has better production? More like playing the fools.

    It’s obvious this guy is lost without his teleprompter:

    And on the subject of another terrorist attack, the president told Woodward in July, “We can absorb a terrorist attack. We’ll do everything we can to prevent it, but even a 9/11, even the biggest attack ever … we absorbed it and we are stronger.”

    http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/woodward-obama-determined-find-afghanistan-exit-strategy/story?id=11698528&page=3

    If we have another attack, I’m sure those killed and their survivors will appreciate the callousness of Obama.

    So, let me get this. It’s OK if we have another terrorist attack on the scale of 9/11, or maybe bigger, (heck it’s OK we had 9/11) because Obama thinks we are stronger due to having 4,000 people killed and now live under the contant threat of Islamic extremists.

    That is as crazy as it gets.

  • stuartzechman

    Sigh…thanks so much for coming here (comments do not appear on the worthless, mobile version of Swampland) and responding to commentary, Michael Scherer, it is always greatly appreciated, and adds so much value to the blog.

  • http://nicewhitelady.blogspot.com/ joyomama

    What SZ said about the Time mobile app. Swampland without the comments is no fun at all.

  • http://nicewhitelady.blogspot.com/ joyomama

    Michael, does this mean Time is going to buy me an iPad? So excited!

  • afguy

    That is as crazy as it gets.
    .
    No, “bring it on” was as crazy as it gets.

  • 53_3

    Micheal:
    .
    Do you suck the ink off of Sarah Palin’s fingers before or after she gives a speech?
    .
    Nevermind. I know the answer already….

  • maverick2k9

    If we have another attack, I’m sure those killed and their survivors will appreciate the callousness of Obama.
    -
    But what about the 9/11 families of people who died during Bush’s watch? What about the 4,421 dead American soldiers, fighting a war of choice, so that Bush-Cheney and their crony capitalists Haliburton and Blackwater get their billion dollar payback?
    -
    http://icasualties.org/
    -
    And you have the f@#$#ing nerve to pontify about the Ifs and buts, you imbecile!

blog comments powered by Disqus