Nate Silver posted a great suggestion for how Obama could craft funnier, more effective ads:
Firstly, I think they need some sort of hit on Sarah Palin. But it can't be too personal. The whole point is to portray her as a conventional and perhaps somewhat corrupt and provincial politician, and break out of the sort of People Magazine / US Weekly popularity contest that has broken out. There is so much attention being paid to Palin's celebrity that she has gotten away with asserting her claim to being a reformer when there are some strong rebuttals to such things.
The easiest point of entry is probably this one: during the last four years of her tenure as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, Palin procured more than $26 million in pork barrel projects. This translates to about $4,000 per resident of Wasilla, or about 30x the per capita rate received by a city like Boise, Idaho. Is this such a terrible thing? You decide, but it undermines her reformer image and I think makes a good 30-second talking point.
Josh Marshall did a mock up of what such an ad might look like. It needs to be shortened and perhaps needs to avoid the derisive laughter over the image of Paslin, but the gist of the ad is effective, honest, and easy to comprehend:
I've seen other home-made grassroots ads get widespread attention here on DailyKos and eventually get funding to run. Why can't this ad be used as a starting point and be run by an independent organization? Or better yet, if any members of the Obama campaign or the DNC see this ad, why not steal the idea. It funny, memorable, and the facts behind it are outrageous. For a state that like to tout its rugged individualism, they sure as hell depend upon the federal dole like no other state. On top of getting more earmarks by far of any state, each and every Alaskan will received a check from its government for $3200 this coming Friday from taxes collected from their state's oil production. Why are they so deserving of so many of the federal tax dollars from "the lower 48" as Palin refers to the rest of us?