Progressive Future, progressive advocacy group that is backing Barack Obama, is making a last-minute appeal to Reagan Democrats using none other than Ronald Reagan himself.
Their new TV spot, "Better Off" (subscription), uses footage of a famous moment in Reagan's 1980 presidential debate with Jimmy Carter to try to win over undecided voters. "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" Reagan asked in 1980. Plummeting stock prices and video footage of Osama bin Laden and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina play on screen as Reagan speaks about economic security and America's standing in the world. "If you don’t think that this course that we’ve been on for the last four years is what you would like to see us follow for the next four, then I could suggest another choice that you have," Reagan says as a photo of Obama fills the screen.
“With our economy in crisis and our soldiers still at war, Ronald Reagan’s question is as relevant today as it was in 1980,” said Progressive Future political director Brad Martin in a press release. The group cites data from Gallup that shows over 90 percent of Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction. In addition to running the TV ad in Ohio and Florida, Progressive Future will spend the last 96 hours of the election on volunteer mobilization and get-out-the-vote efforts.