By Mike Dorning
DAVENPORT, Iowa—Get ready for dueling Democratic candidate addresses on the night before the Iowa Caucuses.
Earlier in the week, Hillary Clinton’s campaign purchased air time for a 2-minute message to Iowa voters to be shown as an advertisement on 6 pm newscasts across the state on Jan. 2.
Today, Obama’s campaign bought air time for its own 2-minute message on the same newscasts on the eve of the caucuses. Obama will use the time to deliver a pre-taped “closing argument” for the Iowa campaign.
Obama communications director Robert Gibbs said the campaign had been considering such a message even before the Clinton campaign purchased time..
“We’ve been looking into it. Other candidates have been looking into it,” said Obama communications director Robert Gibbs.
“It’s a much different medium. Normally we’re communicating in 30 seconds (in television ads). This will be a much longer argument for why Barack Obama should be president,” Gibbs added.