Barack Obama keeps saying that we need to watch less TV. Turn it off, he tells us.

He’s right.  Perhaps we should have started with his infomercial last night.

But then Aaron Barnhart couldn’t have written this piece at TV Barn:

It isn’t every day you can draw a comparison between Barack Obama and Richard Nixon, but here goes. Both men, faced with a key group of voters who stood between themselves and the presidency, used television in creative ways to try to win them over.

In 1968, the Nixon campaign produced 10 hourlong programs and paid to put them on TV stations. On Wednesday, the Obama campaign produced a half-hour program and paid to air it on three networks and select cable channels.

While Nixon’s handlers had to work around the fact that their man was (to put it kindly) a stiff in front of the camera, not to mention a two-time loser with baggage, Obama found himself facing an opposite set of challenges, which he addressed directly and repeatedly in his infomercial. …

You’ll want to read Aaron Barnhart’s whole piece here.

Of course, there’s another way to compare Nixon and Obama.  They’re both The One.

We’ve noted in the past how much we loathe members of Congress getting involved in the affairs of professional sports.  So imagine our anger at this news item:

A group of 13 U.S. senators wrote a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell urging the league to make the games televised on the league-owned NFL Network more widely available.

Among those signing the letter, dated Tuesday, were Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), …

The Senate is now worried about sports on pay TV?  Makes me wonder: next time my cable goes out, should I just complain to Specter and Leahy?

From the Washington Post TV Column:

During his one-on-one with Obama for the ABC evening newscast, Charlie Gibson was not joined by Hasselbeck, and he did not talk to Obama over his Skinny Glasses of Intimidation and did not ask him to explain the Bush Doctrine. Instead, Gibson asked Obama such penetrating questions as: “Finish this sentence: ‘On November 5, I’m so happy I won’t have to . . .’ ”

(Obama went with “pack.”)

Business & Media Institute reports:

This could be worse than mixing metaphors. If Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama is going to ad lib in a speech about the economy by invoking black 1970s breakthrough TV, he could at least get it right.

In his Oct. 29 speech in Raleigh, N.C., Obama railed against Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain on various issues about the economy, specifically including tax cuts and the privatization of Social Security. He proposed that had Social Security been invested in the stock market – it might cause a Fred Sanford-style reaction.

“If Sen. McCain is elected, we’ll have another president who wants to privatize part of your Social Security,” Obama said. “That ain’t right. Can you imagine if you had your Social Security invested in the stock market these last two weeks? These last two months? You wouldn’t need Social Security. You’d be having a – you know like, what was it. ‘Sanford and Son,’ ‘I’m coming Weezie.’ It ain’t right.”

But, Obama blew it in his attempt to be ‘70s hip. “Weezie” or Louise Jefferson, was a character on “The Jeffersons,” a show about a middle-class black family. Actress Isabel Sanford portrayed her.

Which makes us wonder, when did they stop going after the Archie Bunker vote?

We learn from the DC Examiner’s Yeas & Nays …

DC Comics has been unveiling in a four issue mini-series the political leanings of some of its best known characters, with the climatic announcement of whether Superman is a Republican or Democrat coming out today.  We know his wife, Lois Lane, is a Republican, and they’ve already announced that Batman is a Democrat.

But what about the rest?  Yeas & Nays spoke with Josh Flanagan, co-founder of iFanboy.com, a comic book review and cultural commentary site, who told us his predictions for the rest of our favorite well-known characters.  “I’d be shocked if [Spiderman] were anything but a Democrat,” Flanagan said.  “He grew up poor, lives in New York and works on a newspaper.”

Iron Man, on the other hand, would probably be voting for McCain, as he “works for the government as a weapons contractor and has sided with recent government on a lot of things.”

Wonder Woman is “an Amazon princess” and lived in a “society of woman against paternalism,” leading Flanagan to believe she’d be a Democrat.

And don’t forget the the Incredible Hulk, who Flanagan says would “forget to register and not even vote. … He just wants to be left alone. So maybe a Libertarian.”

Hate to spoil the big news, but here’s proof of Superman’s connection to the Democrats.  More than measuring the drapes, Obama’s been measuring the capes.

We learn from today’s Washington Post that Barack Obama’s campaign accepts gift cards for donations.

Good — now I finally have a use for this …

Joe Biden at an Ocala ice cream shop, reported by Dana Milbank:

“Look at this! Man, this is a dangerous place. Holy mackerel!” Biden said as he entered the ordinary-looking shop. He greeted the server. “I’m an ice cream guy. Is ice cream down that way? Could I get a sugar cone and chocolate chip?” He turned to a friend, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.). “What you gonna have? It’s on me — I’m the last of the big spenders from up north. . . . I’m getting plain old chocolate chip. That’s plenty, God love ya.”