Hype: The Obama Effect Now Previewing on YouTube

Citizens United, the same group that attacked Hillary Clinton in a documentary video released earlier this year, unveiled its plans Monday July 21 to release an anti-Obama documentary. The group has spent $250,000 to run an ad touting the video on FOX News, according to a story in the New York Times. Hype: the Obama Effect is scheduled for release on September 1.

The anti-Obama trailer on YouTube, shown here, challenges Obama's use of populist campaign slogans to generate record cash contributions and audience sizes. Hype: the Obama Effect promises to analyze Senator Obama's voting record, his experience, and his ethics including his association with Chicago financier Tony Rezko who was convicted of 16 of 24 Federal charges involving acceptance of kickbacks for influencing state contracts.

Citizens United proclaims its mission as restoring traditional American values of limited government, free enterprise, strong families, and national sovereignity and security. The lobbying arm of Citizen's United, American Sovereignity Project, has a a major objective the complete withdrawal of the United States of America from the United Nations.

Another key project of Citizens United is called Citizens United for the Bush Agenda. This project's cornerstone is the enactment of conservative legislation supported by the Bush administration.

The ads and trailer hyping Hype: the Obama Effect suggest that the documentary will make unfavorable comparisons between Obama and former Presidents John F. Kennedy and Jimmy Carter.

But is hype and sloganeering necessarily a negative in the political arena? Historically, politicians have used hype to not only their own advantage but to the advantage of the American public.

The Space Race

One of the most famous examples of hype was John F. Kennedy's promise to put a man on the moon in 10 years. When he made that promise, the United States was running behind the Soviet Union in the Space Race and did not have the technology in place to land a man on the moon. But with popular support, the country took on this goal and achieved it.

I Have a Dream