Normally I don't get political...

[feren]

... but this absolutely cracked me up.

By now you've most likely all heard about Joe the Plumber. Obama has introduced his new champion example of the middle-class average American: Al the Shoe Salesman.

Yes, that really is Ed O'Neill (reprising his old role as Al Bundy).

Link found via Reddit and video courtesy of barackobama.com's YouTube account.

Comments

[sylverfox.livejournal.com]

I am Jason Foxworth and I approve of this message!

[feren.livejournal.com]

We really are softies for the old classics, aren't we? ;)

[brianblackberry.livejournal.com]

IS it me or has be lost the ability to play Al Bundy? I didn't feel that connection to the character.

I of course loath to trust a calculator of my tax benefits right off a partisan political site. Now where is my salt so I take a few grains...

[feren.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he doesn't quite convey "Al Bundy" to me on this, but there may also be some legal ties (I'm sure that Fox still holds all the rights to the character, etc). And it doesn't help that Ed is getting on in years.

Still, tongue-in-cheek nod that was there cracks me up.

As for the message, you can always go look at this graph of information, put together by the Washington Post. If the Post is partisan or not is an exercise left to the reader.

[ronbar.livejournal.com]

This is awesome even without him playing it as Al Bundy.

I thought the same thing you did about character rights, but if I was in charge of their media campaign I would have had him play Al Bundy and dealt with the consequences later. It might have cost them a settlement later and they'd have to have covered Ed O'Neill's liability too, but the press coverage if Fox threatened to sue or sued would have helped make the video popular too.