Campaign Video of the Day -- February 20, 2008

There was a Wendy's ad campaign many years ago called "Parts Is Parts." The advertiser made his point through an absurdly stupid counterman. A hamburger stand customer asks what was used to make his chicken sandwich. The counterman replies "processed chicken." The customer asks what is used to make the processed chicken and the counterman replies "chicken parts." The customer asks what parts. The counterman replies "a lot of chicken parts." Near the end he utters the signature "parts is parts" implying the hamburger chain wants us to believe that all chicken parts are the same. The point of the ad is that all chicken parts are not equal and interchangeable. A chicken sandwich needs to be made out of the right chicken parts. Quality counts.

For far too long the Republican "countermen" have been telling us "jobs is jobs." For far too long the absurdly stupid media chorus has been repeating the "jobs is jobs" message never looking behind the mindless assumption that all jobs are the same. That's not true. An $8.00 per hour job is not the equal of a $16.00 per hour job, let alone one that pays $28.00 per hour.

Hillary had a chance those few short weeks ago. If after New Hampshire she had told Bill, Mark and Howard to shut up and sit down, and had concentrated on the message contained in today's wonderful ad she might have caught fire. Instead she listened to Bill and a bunch of disciples of Karl Rove who told her to "go negative" on Barack Obama.

If they had done what Kevin G. Hall did when he wrote today's very important McClatchy article Low unemployment rate hides rise in long-term jobless, and asked the follow up questions about why she won New Hampshire, she might have learned that her tears for America's family touched America's struggling parents. Those tears gave them hope that Hillary understood what is really important. Whether Barack attracts naive young people (along with millions of others) or whether he exchanges speech lines with his politician friends is irrelevant. Most of America's parents outside the beltway are tired of being told "parts is parts" and "jobs is jobs." They know there is a difference between the two $8.00 per hour service jobs they now work and their $28.00 per hour factory job that moved to China. Having lost their $28.00 jobs, lots and lots of parents are struggling to juggle two $8.00 per hour jobs. America's families are suffering badly as a result.

Night Shift talks to the people who are hurting most--America's working mothers (and fathers.) Hillary needs a lot more of this message and a lot less of out of touch rich "men behaving badly."

If you encounter a campaign video in need of broader play, please email the link to proctoring.congress@gmail.com subject Campaign Video of the Day.

I want to thank the writer of the February 19, At The End of the Day for the McClatchy link. It is important.

Campaign Video after the break.