What''s a Candidate To Do?

Hey there, Senator. Obama Girl wants to dance with you. Should you:

• Ignore her? (Run a Pass )
• Make one of her wildest dreams come true, and pull her onstage for a whirl at a fundraiser? (Run a Peacock )
• Tell her you’re taken, and dance publicly with the one that brung ya…your wife Michelle, or maybe your daughters? (Run a Deflect
• All of the above, in sequence?

One in eight Americans knew about the Obama Girl online music video before the sequel was released this week. (In it, she does battle with Giuliani Girl. Weapon of choice: pillows.) Unlike past fictional characters who have glided into the presidential campaign picture frame – remember Chicken Man, a walking Call Out – she bears no political challenge to the Senator. She doesn’t really have a political message. She’s a publicity stunt (a Peacock) for an aspiring model/actress and a couple of very able marketers. Still, she has the nation’s attention, and before she disappears with the summer she will have become part of the Obama tableaux vivant and many attempts to Crowd her white-hot YouTube clips. Take, for example, this Hillary knockoff, Hott4Hill. Who, we gotta wonder, will be Mitt’s girl?

There’s no downside to ignoring her. The Obama campaign can run Deflects or a Pass as it likes, keeping it clean for right-of-center swing voters. But the playmakers think Obama can wring a benefit out of the pop culture hit and communicate family values without dousing the sizzle (see above). In one of her online videos, Hillary rolled her head in time to the music. But imagine the appeal of a rival who can bust a move...with a YouTube starlette or his own girls, it matters not?

Still want to play it straight, Senator? Run a Screen on voter registration. See if Obama Girl has registered – and if she hasn’t, show her how. She''ll take the call.

What plays would you run on Obama Girl?

Posted by Alan Kelly & Michael Cornfield