Five Days to Change: American Stories

Last night's "American Stories," was dubbed (even by the candidate) Barack Obama's "info-mercial" but it was so much more. It may be the template for the 21st century fireside chat.

As Tom Shales in the Washington Post wrote: "As political filmmaking, "Barack Obama: American Stories" was an elegant combination of pictures, sounds, voices and music designed not so much to sell America on Barack Obama as to communicate a sensibility. The film conveyed feelings, not facts -- specifically, a simulation of how it would feel to live in an America with Barack Obama in the White House.... It was the easiest thing in the world, watching the skillfully edited hodgepodge put together by his campaign, to picture Obama as president. That's one thing the film was designed to do, especially for the doubters and those scared, "undecided" voters out there."

I'll post responses etc. as they form during the day. I expect Obama's poll numbers to go up after this, and I don't think they're going to stop. Even before the airing, the first tracker of the day shows McCain's gains in that poll reversing.