Obama for America to Premiere Guggenheim Documentary on President’s First Term

By On March 8, 2012 · 14 Comments

A great deal of campaigning is storytelling.  Messaging.  For a challenger those stories usually include fear-based rhetoric intended to cast doubt.  We have and will continue to see that from the Romney camp and his millionaire friends.  Incumbents also have a story to tell and President Obama will need to do the same kind of clearing the air he did in his original campaign.  Obfuscation plays to the GOP and they’ll do as much muddying as they can.

Today, Obama for America announced a new documentary that they will be using to garner support on the ground.  It’s no surprise that this campaign would be pulling off something new and interesting.  If you view the trailer and sign up with your email and zip code, you will have the opportunity to screen the full documentary at an OFA field office.  Brilliant.  We saw this in 2008 as well.  They’re a case study in running solid campaigns.

Here’s the trailer:

You can sign up to be the first to see it here

From OFA:

Obama for America today released the trailer for a new documentary by award-winning director Davis Guggenheim titled the “Road We’ve Traveled”. The documentary is narrated by Tom Hanks and includes appearances by Vice President Joe Biden, First Lady Michelle Obama, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Elizabeth Warren and others. The film is an opportunity to put into perspective the challenges the country faced when President Obama took office, the tough decisions he made in the face of those challenges and the progress we’ve made in rebuilding an economy that’s meant to last and strengthening and securing our nation.

At the end of the trailer, supporters are encouraged to sign up building our online and on the ground support. Supporters will be able to attend premieres of the documentary on March 15 at Obama for America field offices across the country. Following the premiere, senior strategist David Axelrod will be taking Q&A from supporters using Adobe Connect.

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  • Guest

    Anyone who has Rahm Emanuel on their team is not a friend of workers, not that Obama’s record of disappointing his base really paints him as one.

  • clambake

    OMG. How fitting that Mr. Waiting for Superman would make the film.
    Truth team time:
    http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/stephen-colbert-on-eric-holders-assassination-explanation-20120307

    evangelize!

  • clambake

     plus, you know he has the guy making the anti teacher union film doing his propaganda.

  • clambake

    Here is the indispensable  Diane Ravitch reviewing Mr. Guggenheims pro charter school masterpiece:
    http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/nov/11/myth-charter-schools/?pagination=false

  • Annekarima

    Ohhhhh…….hhh…..I get it….!!!!   Follow the money.

  • clambake

    All snark aside, how can anyone be anything but creeped out by this movie? (from what I’ve seen.) I did not cast a vote for marketer in chief. If your idea of solid campaigning is slick propaganda and a sophisticated data mining operation then yes it is a solid campaign. But this sort of stuff is alienating to many people.
    But here’s the thing. Many are arguing that Obama is the lesser of two evils and they will cast their vote grudgingly. Fine. But to cheerlead for him? If a Republican takes the executive office what sort of credibility can you have when expressing outrage at the growth of unchecked executive power? When they appoint Wall Street insiders to their economic team? When they appoint a antiworker CEO as jobs czar? When they refuse to prosecute corporate fraud ? When they ramp up a senseless drug war? When they argue for the right of the executive to assassinate American citizens with due process? When they start talking up the need to make sacrifices when it comes to Social Security (and appoint a proponent of SS privatization  to a “bipartisan” deficit commission)? When they start talking about opening up ANWAR and more coastal areas to oil drilling?

  •  Not having cast a vote for POTUS – would not have guessed that!  😉

    Political campaigning IS marketing.  I don’t actually views Marketer in Chief as an insult.  You have to sell your ideas and your policies to the public.  It’s marketing.  Only those opposed will call it “slick propaganda”.  I find slick campaign materials (well designed, well executed) to be highly effective, not insulting. 

    Sophisticated data mining?  Also not bad.  Just like knowledge is power, so is data to a campaign. 

    OFA and Team Obama have led the way in more modern campaign techniques than can be counted. 

    Putting together a documentary of a first term and offering supporters to be the first to view it via a trailer promotion doesn’t creep me out at all. 

    You can disagree with all of the policy points above – leaving aside the validity of your criticism – but you can’t dismiss solid campaign techniques if you know anything about it. 

    Nobody is making a “lesser than two evils” argument here.  He’s clearly the better choice than any of the GOP candidates.  The argument is that he’s done primarily what he said he’d do and deserves to continue in a second term.  Very simple. 

    Not saying you can’t be critical, but to offer up such criticism while admitting you never voted for him in the first place carries less weight than if you had done so expecting different.

  • clambake

    ummm.. I  voted for Obama. Even after the debacle of the Clinton presidency I continued to vote straight ticket Democratic. What I was saying (sorry if I was too obscure) was that I did not think I was voting for “marketer in chief”.

    Also, I would like to add that I was not someone that expected a magic pony when he was elected. I knew he inherited a mess and instructed others more enthisastic to tamp down their expectations– only so much that can be accomplished in one term! I did not expect the continuation of so many Cheney policies.

  • clambake

    And let me get this straight– when Kasich screens the pro charter, anti union Waiting for Superman that is bad. When Obama hires the dierector of said movie to direct his campaign “documentary” that is… smart?

    Also, thank you for giving me permission to be critical even though you (mistakenly) believed me to have not voted for Obama.

  •  yes, it was unclear.  thanks for clarifying.

  •  so let me get this straight.  when i don’t like a movie a director has directed i then can’t like any other video he directs?

  • clambake

    Okay, fair enough. I happen to have a beef with people such as Guggenheim that cast themselves as reformers and really have no clue what they’re talking about.

    I find slick campaign materials (well designed, well executed) to be highly effective, not insulting. 

    Sophisticated data mining?  Also not bad.  Just like knowledge is power, so is data to a campaign. 
    You can disagree with all of the policy points above – leaving aside the
    validity of your criticism – but you can’t dismiss solid campaign
    techniques if you know anything about it. 

    Yes, I may not know anything. All I am is a potential vote, so the commercial is directed at people such as myself.
    Instead of slick I should have said “bombastic and over-the-top”. The commercial is ripe for parody. One thing OFA has going for it is that Republicans don’t do humor very well.

  •  There we are in total agreement.  The GOP really sucks at humor.  We leverage it much better on the left.  😉

  • clambake

     Sadly, I think both the NEA and AFT have declared their support of Obama. I believe the blue collar unions have declared their support too– even after Obama threw his weight behind three new “free” trade deals.
    Honestly, I don’t know how anyone that supports public education can be anything but appalled by the choice od Guggenheim to direct this movie. If you have not read Ravitch’s critique, I urge you too. (link above) I don’t believe Guggeneheim had an agenda of helping to destroy public education. I do believe he is not the brightest bulb and proves the point that a fancy private education does not necessarily make you much of a critical thinker. I do think he is a gullible tool. If I had seen the film when I was in say, 7th grade I may have been swayed and “inspired” by it. 
    There is lesson for those that wish to advance the Republican agenda at the state level. They might be smarter to coopt the right people that can help to make their message more palatable and to help stifle dissent instead of relying on blustering fools like Kasich. This strategy seems to be working on a national level.

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