Yes, the 2008 Presidential Campaign does, in fact, end at some point. That point is right now. Here’s what’s happened in this last, final week of the campaign.
- Barack Obama started the week off with a bang by buying up a half hour of time on all the major networks (except ABC, who was slow to pull the trigger and missed their chance) with his very own infomercial. However, always paying heed to the Internet, Obama also posted the video online the second the broadcast began, which was greatly appreciated by the MPJO 855 crowd.
- It’s unclear what type of an actual effect the Obamathon had on voters, but a good chunk of them actually watched it, which is a start. Nielsen stated that roughly 21.7% of households nationwide, a somewhat smaller audience than what tuned in for each of the three Presidential debates.
- A few bits of humor on the Republican side of the ticket this week — First, John McCain returned to Saturday Night Live last night to participate in a couple of pretty funny sketches, including one with the supernova that is Tina Fey as Sarah Palin pushing QVC paraphenalia. However, for my money, the Old Grandpa was his best on his appearance on Weekend Update:
- On the less deliberate conservative comedic front, Sarah Palin became the butt of a few Canadian comedians who managed to score (and record) a phone conversation they had with her posing as French President Nicholas Sarkozy. Fortunately for Palin, she didn’t say anything too embarrassing, other than falling for the charade. (As an aside, as I write this entry on Monday, the prank makes up a handful of the most viewed videos on YouTube, so a lot of people are watching/listening to it.)
- Starbuck’s got into the patriotic fervor by announcing this week that anybody who votes (or is willing to lie about voting) can go to Starbuck’s a get a free cup of coffee on Tuesday.
- MTV managed to cut through all the platitudes and finally get an answer from Obama on one of the hot-button issues of the day: is busting a sag an inalieable right? Obama said passing laws banning the practice is pretty silly, but walking around with exposed underwear is equally silly.
- Traditionally, the Washington Redskins play the Monday night before the election, and in tonight’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, it’s safe to assume that McCain is rooting for the ‘Skins, and not just because he spends a lot of time in DC. The winner of this game has a pretty good track record of predicting the winner of the election (as long as you don’t count 2004).
- On the polling front, we saw several outlets provide their final polls for this long and hard-fought election. The general takeaway from these mountains of data is that while his lead has tightened somewhat, Obama still has one in key battleground states.
- As the Internet (and those writing exclusively on it) has grown dramatically in recent years, some journalists began to openly speculate whether or not Matt Drudge, who used to be the vanguard of all sorts of breaking news and had near-exclusive control of mainstream media coverage, really mattered that much anymore.
- Some have pointed to Drudge’s most recent headline, coupled with the Ashley Todd debacle, as evidence of his diminishing influence on the media.
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This is the most important news the day before the election.
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