Obama ventures onto Florida’s TVs

By BETH REINHARD, Miami Herald

Fri, Jun. 20, 2008

Trespassing on turf that favors Republican John McCain, Barack Obama plans to sweep Friday into Florida and 17 other states with his first television ad of the general-election campaign.

The Obama campaign declined to pinpoint the statewide ad's cost but confirmed that it will run in South Florida's expensive media market. In addition to toss-up states such as Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, it will air in Republican-leaning Alaska, North Carolina, and Georgia.

''This is the latest evidence of our commitment to expanding the traditional playing field,'' said Obama spokesman Josh Earnest.

Obama's unprecedented fundraising prowess allows him to take some risks, said campaign-advertising analyst Evan Tracey, of TNS Media Intelligence/CMAG.

''His advertising will be the political equivalent of shock and awe,'' Tracey said, ``while the McCain campaign is going to have to be disciplined and patient.''

Tracey said that McCain, who won his party's nomination four months before Obama, has already spent about $7.5 million on broadcast ads in 10 states and cable networks across the nation, including Florida.

His current cable ad portrays him as an environmentalist committed to fighting global warming.

McCain is also advertising on Spanish-language radio in Miami with a spot that features Roberto Martin Perez, a former political prisoner in Cuba. Referring to Obama's willingness to talk to the communist regime, he says: ``While some support a dialogue with Raúl Castro, . . . John McCain knows that freedom in Cuba won't be achieved with concessions to dictatorships.''

Obama's new ad is biographical, aiming to quash criticism of him as a stuffy Ivy Leaguer.

Wearing an unbuttoned shirt and blazer, Obama talks about being raised by his single mom with ``values straight from the Kansas heartland.''

''I'll never forget those values, and if I have the honor of taking the oath of office as president, it will be with a deep and abiding faith in the country I love,'' he says.

The ad uses typically Republican campaign themes of patriotism and family values.