Obama buys 2-minute commercial on economy, to air nationally [View All]

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Obama buys 2-minute commercial on economy

By TERENCE HUNT
AP White House Correspondent


BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) -- Barack Obama sought to put a personal stamp on his economic policies in troubled times, appearing Wednesday in a two-minute television commercial to outline his plans and caution it won't be easy to fix the nation's worsening financial problems.

The new ad was filmed in Denver on Tuesday and was to be broadcast nationally in the wake of one of the worst days on Wall Street, as the stock market, reeling from the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and the takeover of Merrill Lynch, fell 500 points. The turmoil continued Tuesday when the Federal Reserve forged an extraordinary $85 billion rescue of insurance giant American International Group Inc.

The ad and a hardening of Obama's rhetoric reflected a turning point in the campaign to zero in on the economy as the No. 1 issue for voters.

Obama's point was that Americans didn't have to read newspapers or watch television reports to know that the economy is struggling.

Obama said: "600,000 Americans have lost their jobs since January. Paychecks are flat and home values are falling. It's hard to pay for gas and groceries and if you put it on a credit card they've probably raised your rates.

"You're paying more than ever for health insurance that covers less and less," he said. "This isn't just a string of bad luck. The truth is that while you've been living up to your responsibilities, Washington has not. That's why we need change. Real change."

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