The genius of the 30 minute World Series commercial:

-The audience will be massive, and will include key demographics (white males, for one) that are essential for Obama to reach in the final stretch.

-It owns the news cycle the next day, critical in the final week before the election.

-It's not just a commercial - it's news. Key highlights will be replayed on CNN and all the other nets, and youtubes will go viral. This means that millions of people who might not particularly be fans of Obama, baseball or presidential politics in general will end up getting meaningful exposure to the commercial's pertinent messages.

-Those people live in all 50 states.  Of course, this helps in the battlegrounds, where high-priced campaign battles are already being waged (and where both teams are from). But...

-Perhaps even more importantly, this helps in states like Arizona.  That's where just yesterday a poll came out with a +/- 4 margin of error and McCain is only up 44-40, within the margin. Obama could actually be competitive there as well as some other states where he's closing the gap if more resources were channeled in.  The World Series commercial reaches those states without spending extra money in those specific localities. And also in Arizona, two House seats currently held by Republicans are in danger and the Democrats there are making serious runs for them.  Even if red states like this don't turn blue in the presidential race, an increase in Obama voters could help win congressional seats.


After hearing some people complain about Fox delaying the game 15 minutes to accomodate the commercial, I got to mulling over whether it was really a good idea.  My conclusion: Yes, it's a really good idea. Brilliant, in fact.

Now, let's just hope the Rays win at least one more game and take the series to 6 games.