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Obama's First Re-Election Campaign Video Features Grant Park

By Samantha Abernethy in News on Nov 7, 2011 10:40PM

President Barack Obama's 2012 re-election campaign ramped up today, putting out the first of what will surely be many campaign ads. It's hard to believe there is already less than one year left before the 2012 presidential elections, although it seems election speculation has been steady December 2008*.

The ad consists solely of footage from Grant Park on election night, with screaming crowds and flags waving. We're disappointed not to see a crying Oprah in there. Then the music drops out, and the scene is erased down to an empty park and a Chicago skyline. The next panel reads, "One year from now all our progress could be erased."

Is it good or bad that the Obama campaign is reminding everyone of how they felt in 2008? The air in Grant Park that night was electric, after all. It raises the question of whether your life has become better or worse since the Bush era. Will use of the term "progress" remind his liberal critics of his "lack of progress" on some issues?

Obama has slowly mobilized the campaign throughout the summer while the Republican 2012 candidates continue their bickering and candidacy decisions. (Remember when Donald Trump was going to run? Hilarious.) They chose to keep campaign headquarters in the Prudential building in downtown Chicago in March, and Obama officially announced his candidacy for re-election and started seeking donations in April. The Obama campaign raised more than $70 million just over the summer, and much of it came in donations less than $250, much like his 2008 campaign.

*Clinton/Clinton 2016