Barack Obama has released his first national campaign ad. It's called, "Country I Love." Watch it here.
Transcription below:
I'm Barack Obama.
America is a country of strong families and strong values. My life's been blessed by both.
I was raised by a single mom and my grandparents. We didn't have much money, but they taught me values straight from the Kansas heartland where they grew up. Accountability and self-reliance. Love of country. Working hard without making excuses. Treating your neighbor as you'd like to be treated. It's what guided me as I worked my way up -- taking jobs and loans to make it through college.
It's what led me to pass up Wall Street jobs and go to Chicago instead, helping neighborhoods devastated when steel plants closed.
That's why I passed laws moving people from welfare to work, cut taxes for working families and extended health care for wounded troops who'd been neglected.
I approved this message because I'll never forget those values, and if I have the honor of taking the oath of office as president, it will be with a deep and abiding faith in the country I love.
Where shall I begin? Let's start with this. It's smart that Obama go with this theme first. With all the stories about their about him not wearing an American flag pin or stuff about Michelle Obama or even his name, he MUST connect with skeptical, on the fence Americans in the heartland, especially those in the swing states.
I thought an interesting line was when he said, "They taught me values straight from the Kansas heartland." Interesting line. Actually, he grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia but getting the Kansas heartland words in there is basically code to small town USA where he's saying, "My values are your values." Forget all that cling to guns and religion stuff.
John McCain is going to have an advantage in this election on the patriotism issue. There's really no question about that because of his heroic service to this country. Obama must be able to show he loves this country just as much as McCain does.
Maybe his next campaign ad will consist of Lee Greenwood singing "God Bless the USA" and he and Michelle will be dressed in red white and blue clothes while they're eating apple pie and driving a Chevrolet.
Actually, I have an idea. They should just run this video. It's patriotic and progressive.