Obama launches his $6m TV advert blitzkrieg

The Democrat front-runner set out to achieve total domination of the airwaves in a campaign blitzkrieg that cost an estimated $6million and led to protests that he was buying the election.

In between the two major events, he found time to give an interview on the comedy current affairs programme, the Daily Show, and urged supporters not to get complacent.

His 30-minute advert dubbed Obama, the Movie earned grudging admiration from critics for its Hollywood-quality production values and photography. It showed footage of him playing with his children, meeting ordinary families and making speeches to huge crowds. A montage of black and white photographs showed a shot of Mr Obama, shoulders bowed, that mirrored a famous grainy portrait of John F Kennedy just before he was assassinated.

Symphonic background music and phrases like "optimism and hope and strength" were drawn from the Ronald Reagan playbook.

Mr Obama talked about his mother's death from cancer and promised to withdraw from Iraq. "I will not be a perfect president," he said. "But I can promise you this I will always tell you what I think and where I stand."

As the video cut to Mr Obama in a room which looked similar to the Oval Office with a prominent US flag, he said America's problems went back decades and now there was a "defining moment", "the chance for our leaders to meet the demands of these challenging times and keep faith with our people".

The "infomercial" featured ordinary Americans living in key states describing their problems, such as living on low incomes or lacking health insurance. It then cut to Mr Obama outlining broad policies he said would help.

For the final two minutes, it cut seamlessly to Mr Obama speaking at a rally in Florida. "In six days, we can come together as one nation, and one people, and once more choose our better history," he told the crowd as closing music swelled.

The programme was shown on seven channels that were paid up to $1 million each. John McCain jibed that only "rain and acts of God" had delayed the baseball World Series in the past. "I guess some network executives thought an Obama infomercial was close enough," he said. In fact, the game was not delayed although some programmes were shortened to accommodate Mr Obama's ad.

Later, Mr McCain angrily claimed that Mr Obama was able to outspend him because he had broken an agreement that both campaigns would limit their fundraising. "He signed a piece of paper when he was a long-shot candidate ... he didn't tell the American people the truth," said the Republican. At 3am UK time, Mr Obama and President Clinton arrived in a motorcade at a late-night rally in Orlando, Florida, where a crowd of 35,000 had queued to see the pair make their only joint appearance.

They walked on stage and joined hands for the cameras before Mr Clinton rallied the crowd, saying: "This is America's future. Barack Obama represents our future and you've got to be there for him next Tuesday."

He joked that the crowd was so diverse it even had "a few grey-headed white guys like me". He revealed that Mr Obama called him to seek advice on how to respond to the economic crash confirming that the Democrat candidate had gone to some lengths to repair relations with the Clintons after they fell out when he beat Mrs Clinton to the nomination."Folks, we cannot fail on this," said Mr Clinton. "Our country is hanging in the balance, we have so much promise and so much peril. This man should be our president."

Mr Obama returned the praise: "In case we all forgot, this is what it's like to have a great president. We all wish the last eight years had been more like the Clinton years. We can't have four more years like the last eight."

Republican strategists released a memo from their chief strategist predicting that by next Tuesday the race will be too close to call. The Obama camp emailed supporters with warnings that Mr McCain could still win if they relaxed their guard.The battle is increasingly turning to on-the-ground campaigns to get voters out in key states.