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Barack Obama set for prime-time TV appeal to voters

Democratic Senator Barack Obama geared up yesterday to deliver a presidential-style address to the nation on the final stretch of his White House campaign against Senator John McCain. Upping the pace to an intense new level six days before next Tuesday’s election, Obama was to hold his first joint rally with former president Bill Clinton at a midnight event in Orlando, Florida.

Obama’s 30-minute, prime-time TV pitch, at up to US$5 million, was to be broadcast on three of the four national networks: CBS, NBC and Fox.

Virtually guaranteeing a huge audience, the “infomercial” was to directly precede the start of the latest and potentially decisive game of baseball’s World Series.

Aides were tight-lipped about the contents but the broadcast was likely to emulate the slickly produced biographical video shown at the Democratic convention in late August as Obama offers his “closing argument” to voters.

The Illinois senator, who at 47 is bidding to be the US’ first black president, is riding high in the polls and Republican McCain is beset by reports of internal disarray between his aides and running mate Sarah Palin.

In Virginia late on Tuesday, Obama said history was in the air as he builds a double-digit poll lead in a state that last voted for a Democratic White House hopeful in 1964. In fact, as he campaigned in the picturesque Shenandoah Valley, Obama said the last Democratic presidential contender to come to the region was the racist Stephen Douglas — Abraham Lincoln’s opponent before the 1861 to 1865 Civil War.

“That’s a long distance to travel,” he said, while stressing in a now-daily warning against complacency: “Don’t think for one minute that power will concede without a fight … We’re going to have to work like our future depends on it, because it does.”

McCain, 72, was also campaigning in the Sunshine State yesterday, a pivotal battleground that decided the 2000 election in favor of US President George W. Bush after a recount fiasco that went all the way to the Supreme Court.

An estimated 2 million Floridians have voted early and queues have grown so lengthy that Governor Charlie Crist — a moderate Republican who is reportedly critical of McCain’s campaign — has extended balloting hours.

Florida had appeared a lock for McCain not many weeks ago, but a Los Angeles Times poll late on Tuesday had Obama ahead by 50 percent to 43 percent. It also had Obama on 49 percent to McCain’s 40 in Ohio, another crucial state.
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