Obama's first TV ad touts love of country and targets red states

Steve Perry — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:29:01 GMT

Here's the gist of Barack Obama's first general election ad, a minute-long encomium to humble roots and land-of-opportunity patriotism that's set to run in 18 states: "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."

Those 18 states: Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Virginia.

As Joe Sudbay writes at Americablog, all but four of those states (New Hampshire, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin) went for Bush in 2004.

Barack Obama: "Country I Love" (1:00)

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Obama's first TV ad touts love of country and targets red states