Business lessons from Barack Obama

Obama’s 30-minute infomercial – in which he stands shoulder-to-shoulder with former US President Bill Clinton – was aired across three television networks during prime time yesterday and cost an estimated $4m.

It was enough to put the Republican party’s nose out of joint, with John McCain’s spokesman Tucker Bounds saying: “As anyone who has bought anything from an infomercial knows, the sales job is always better than the product.”

Even so, Obama’s “sales job” has been pretty legendary. Although he was thefirst major-party presidential candidate to turn down public financing, he has managed to set fundraising records, raising well over half a billion dollars. He has also herded together an army of volunteers to help him with his campaign through his my.barackobama.com website, the political version of Facebook.

Obama, we salute you.

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