Strategic media placement at its finest

In media-buying lingo it's called "roadblocking", and it doesn't get much better than this:

" Barack Obama will focus on the economy and how his tax plans would help the middle class in a half-hour political infomercial Wednesday night."

"The program will air at 8 p.m. EDT on NBC, CBS, Fox, Univision, BET, MSNBC and TV One, and at various times in other time zones. Obama is scheduled to be speaking during that time at a rally in Florida."

The scheduling on several stations simultaneously effectively "blocks" the time period in the eastern time zone. Then there's the positioning -- the infomercial is scheduled to run just before the last 3 innings of rained-out Game 5 of the World Series (pushed back to accomodate the infomercial scheduling). Which is even better when you consider who's playing -- the Philadelphia Phillies and the Tampa Bay Rays. Meaning fans in Florida and Pennsylvania, two extremely important swing states, will catch Obama's closing comments when they tune in.

In advertising that's called "hitting one out of the park".