from Matt Miller of the Center for American Progress in this Washington Post op ed>:
Take all of the undecided voters that matter, 4% each in the six states that Paul Begala say are still in conflict, VA, FL, IA, NM & Co (Begala says it is 916,643 people..
Miller says to simplify the arithmetic assume it is an even million voters.
Pay them each $100 for <2 hours of their time.
The Obama campaign should pay (yes, pay) undecided voters to watch two videos in full — the Romney 47 percent debacle in Boca Raton; and Bill Clinton’s speech at the Democratic National Convention.
As Miller puts it,
Here’s my thinking. For starters, does anyone doubt that if an undecided (and thus presumably open-minded) voter watched these two videos, he or she would break the president’s way? I’m surely a biased viewer, but it seems to me that even people who don’t follow politics closely would be put off by Romney’s condescension and persuaded by Clinton’s case.
I happen to agree that anyone thinking who looked at those two videos would be swayed, and not in Romney's favor.
Of course I also note the following.
1 NM is not a swing state at this point.
2. The other 5 states have a total of 75 electoral votes. If Obama wins them all he has 332 electoral votes (losing IN, NC and 2nd CD of Nebraska from the 358 EVs held by the jurisdictions he won in '08). Give them all to Romney and he loses, winning only 257 EVs. Obama does not need them all, just any one of VA, OH or FL get him to or above 270.
Regardless of what you think of the idea, the difference between the two conventions started to define the election clearly, with Clinton's speech perhaps the key at the DNC. The events since then have been Romney's disastrous response to Libya and the video from Boca Raton.
But it does not even take $100 million. Each of us can urge those undecided to use the links and take a look at the two videos.
It is a modest proposal.
And Miller is right, even were the Obama campaign to spend money in such a fashion
Sometimes determining the outcome of an election is just the media’s civic duty. Think of Operation Video as this year’s October Surprise. And the beauty part is that there’s nothing remotely dirty or sneaky about it.