Obama tries to sway voters with half-hour infomercial

SUNRISE, Fla. — Eager to cement his case for the presidency in voters' minds before the campaign's final weekend, Barack Obama blitzed the television airwaves Wednesday and deployed one of the Democratic Party's biggest names to deliver his message of change.

Obama's campaign spent more than $3 million to air a 30-minute infomercial on seven networks simultaneously. He appeared at one Florida rally with running mate Joseph Biden and another with former President Clinton as news shows went live in this state.

The campaign also unleashed its first advertisement critical of Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin as Obama addressed big crowds Florida and North Carolina, where he hopes to snap a Republican run.

In a day capped with a taped interview on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," the Illinois senator also cautioned supporters against overconfidence despite his lead in most polls. He told them: "Don't believe for a second this election's over."

In the 30-minute ad, which GOP nominee John McCain dismissed as a "gauzy, feel-good commercial," Obama aimed to etch a portrait as a candidate who understands the economic toll on the nation and who would turn the page on the Bush administration.

He introduced voters — a carefully selected group that cut across geography and racial lines — and discussed their struggles with mortgage payments, access to health care and fears of a losing a job.

Obama offered details about his approach to issues such as housing, taxes, the Iraq war and energy policy. Between snippets of speeches and endorsements from colleagues, he spoke of his mother, who died of cancer, and said, "We've been talking about the same problems for decades and nothing is ever done to solve them."

The program ended with two minutes of live footage of Obama speaking to 20,000 supporters in South Florida, where he hopes to stockpile votes in a state in which polls show him with a slender advantage.

McCain likened Obama to an infomercial salesman.

"He's offering government-run health care," the Republican told a crowd in Riviera Beach, Fla., "an energy plan guaranteed to work without drilling ... and an automatic wealth-spreader that folds neatly and fits under any bed."

Obama scheduled his first public appearance with Clinton in the general-election campaign for a rally timed for the 11 p.m. news. The timing of the appearance near Orlando is a tactic the campaign intends to repeat in coming days. An aide said a central goal is to maximize face time on local news broadcasts — and to cover as much ground as possible before he votes Tuesday in Chicago.

By Saturday evening, Obama will have campaigned in eight states in four days, north to Virginia and west to Missouri, Iowa and Indiana. On Saturday, he plans to start in Nevada and finish in Colorado.

"It's campaign from dawn to dusk," the aide said. "We're campaigning as though we're five points down, to the very end."

McCain and the Republican National Committee, meanwhile, made their case, with ads that called Obama unready for the White House. One called him "risky." Another in North Carolina shows stormy seas and asks, "What if this storm does get worse?" Perhaps most striking was a spot arguing that the Democrat is not ready for the White House "yet."

The ad also mocks Obama's Internet-savvy campaign by finishing with the words, "Barack Obama: untested."

Obama's newest 30-second advertisements directly target Palin after weeks of letting others question her credentials. The campaign links McCain's comments about the economy with the Alaska governor.

Against a gloomy backdrop, the silent ad presents McCain's statements, including the December comment that "the issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should."

With opinion polls showing widespread doubts about Palin's ability to handle the duties of the Oval Office, an Obama aide said the ad was designed to use McCain's words to raise doubts about his ability to deal with the economy, "and what he hopes to get out of his vice-presidential candidate."

The campaign, the aide said, wants voters to ask themselves "whether they're comfortable with Sarah Palin in that role."