www.washingtonpost.com
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders released a new campaign ad titled "America." Paul Simon's song "(All Come To Look For) America" plays over scenes of rural and suburban America. Sanders appears nearly halfway into the ad greeting crowds at a rally. (Bernie 2016)
There are images of Iowa farms, the New Hampshire seacoast, coffee shops, kitchen tables and thousands and thousands of inspired Bernie Sanders supporters, in intimate settings and at the large-scale rallies that have come to define his campaign.
The new 60-second television spot reaches it’s crescendo as Simon & Garfunkel sing “they’ve all come to look for America” while an expanding grid of people who’ve all come to see Sanders flashes on the screen.
The Vermont senator has produced a powerful closing ad that evokes President Obama’s promise of hope-and-change from 2008 — and it’s one that’s certain to create buzz less than two weeks before the first votes are cast in the 2016 Democratic race against Hillary Clinton.
The ad — which captures the festival-like feel of Sanders's campaign events — is also remarkable in that not a single word is spoken, aside from the lyrics to the classic Simon & Garfunkel song “America” and the authority line at the end. In that, Sanders says in his heavy Brooklyn accent, “I’m Bernie Sanders, and I approve this message.”
There’s no mention of Sanders’s agenda or his critique of a country in which he says the “billionaire class” has far too much control over the economy and political process.
Instead, the ad just shows people who’ve been moved over the past nine months by a once-obscure 74-year-old senator from Vermont who’s already exceeded everyone’s expectations in this race and is now positioned to possibly pull off wins in both Iowa and New Hampshire. Aides said the spot will start airing Friday in both of the first two nominating states.
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