Infobama-mercial Changing Hearts and Minds?

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There were no celebrities in tonight’s 30-minute Obama short, but there were cameos by political somebodies, governors (Bill Richardson: “He can heal this country.”), senators (Claire McCaskill), and vignettes featuring real people in key states and regions: the South, New Mexico, Colorado, Missouri, covering key demographics: the elderly, white, black, and Hispanic families (though no Asian family was profiled). Overall, it was a montage to remember, one full of specific promises made in a wood-paneled room that looked a little like the Oval Office 2.0.

The key question, of course, is how many people will be moved to vote for Obama after watching him for 30 minutes, watching him detail the specifics of his commitments to health care and education, seeing pictures of his mother, learning that he calls his daughters every night, and hearing him admit he “won’t be a perfect president.” Some might be swayed (certainly the Harry Potter demographic has reason to believe) but while change may be on the march, it’s unclear how many minds this $5 million endeavor actually changed.

My opinion at least. What did you think?

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Our team has been on fire lately—publishing sweeping, one-of-a-kind investigations, ambitious, groundbreaking projects, and even releasing “the holy shit documentary of the year.” And that’s on top of protecting free and fair elections and standing up to bullies and BS when others in the media don’t.

Yet, we just came up pretty short on our first big fundraising campaign since Mother Jones and the Center for Investigative Reporting joined forces.

So, two things:

1) If you value the journalism we do but haven’t pitched in over the last few months, please consider doing so now—we urgently need a lot of help to make up for lost ground.

2) If you’re not ready to donate but you’re interested enough in our work to be reading this, please consider signing up for our free Mother Jones Daily newsletter to get to know us and our reporting better. Maybe once you do, you’ll see it’s something worth supporting.

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