Hillary Clinton’s name isn’t mentioned once in a recent campaign commercial.
And her picture doesn’t even appear until almost halfway through the more than two-minute ad.
The spot almost looks and sounds like commercial for President Barack Obama, whose administration it summarizes with images meant to tug at the heart strings and send viewers running for a box of tissue. And in fact, should there be any confusion, Obama goes so far as to point out that his name isn’t on the ballot. But he talks about everything else that is.
My name may not be on the ballot, but progress is on the ballot,” he says in the video, released Wednesday by Clinton’s presidential campaign.
“Tolerance is on the ballot,” Obama adds. "Democracy is on the ballot. Justice is on the ballot. Good schools are on the ballot. Ending mass incarceration, that’s on the ballot right now.”
“There is one candidate who will advance those things. And there is another candidate whose defining principle, the central theme of his candidacy, is opposition to all that we’ve done.”
The rousing ad, the narration for which comes from the Congressional Black Caucus dinner last month, seeks to capitalize on the popularity of both the first lady (whose approval rating was 64 percent in August) and the president (whose rating was 10 points lower during the same period) in a turn-out the vote push that links the outcome on Nov. 8 with his legacy.
“So if I hear anybody saying their vote does not matter, saying that it doesn’t matter who we elect, read up on your history,” he says. "It does matter.
“We’ve got to get people to vote. In fact, if you want to give me and [first lady] Michelle [Obama] a good send-off, get people registered to vote. There’s no such thing as a vote that doesn’t matter. It all matters.”
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