The Day Chicago Lost

With Apologies to Paper Lace

On a Scandinavian day
In the land of the fairy tale
When the town of Chicago lost
And it was an epic fail

When a hero named Barack
Tried to make that meeting rock
And he called upon his wife
For the struggle of her life

What did Obama cost
To join the bid the day Chicago lost?
Wonder who the blame will hit because
What a stupid shame it really was
Glory be

Chicago's bid got tossed
Michelle was pissed the day Chicago lost
Brother what a waste of time and bucks
Obama got a taste of how he sucks
Yes indeed

And Michelle brought up the kids
In the slums of the old South Side
But the first vote on the bids
Meant Chicago's hopes had died

There was silence in the street
The crowd shuffling its feet
And I asked someone who said
The Obama magic's dead

What did Obama cost
To join the bid the day Chicago lost?
Wonder who the blame will hit because
What a stupid shame it really was
Glory be

Chicago's bid got tossed
Michelle was pissed the day Chicago lost
Brother what a waste of time and bucks
Obama got a taste of how he sucks
Yes indeed

All was still on Air Force One
But the spinning had begun
David Axelrod told lies
The defeat to minimize
And that moron Robert Gibbs
Gave the talking points to libs

What did Obama cost
To join the bid the day Chicago lost?
Wonder who the blame will hit because
What a stupid shame it really was
Glory be

Chicago's bid got tossed
Michelle was pissed the day Chicago lost
Brother what a waste of time and bucks
Obama got a taste of how he sucks
Yes indeed

Chicago's bid got tossed
Michelle was pissed the day Chicago lost
Brother what a waste of time and bucks
Obama got a taste of how he sucks
Yes indeed

Another candidate voice

A commenter at Ace of Spades blog says:

My husband does voice-over work. He's got a really good ear. He says it's Anne Gartlan. Differences in signal compression explain some slight differences, but both ads are the same woman. She pitches up, she slightly alters her accent across all her work, but the core of her voice is the same. A resonance and timbre that is clear in everyone of her spots, and you can pick her out.

Posted by: SarahW at September 22, 2008 06:57 PM

Listen to her political demo reel (QuickTime download). Sure sounds like her, and the political client list is solidly Democratic.

From a June 2006 article in Campaigns & Elections:

An accomplished voiceover artist, Gartlan has done work for many Democratic candidates including Al Gore, Jon Corzine, Leonard Boswell and a number of New York state candidates. Gartlan's non-political work includes a commercial for a laxative (which is among her favorite commercials because of the tone of voice she uses in it). She said the voice she uses in this commercial is a party hit. One of the most challenging projects she has ever done was an audio book that required her to voice five different Southern women of the same age from the same town.

Is this the voice?

So, McCain DID pitch a curveball -- and what a curveball! Sarah Palin has the Democrats tying themselves in knots, and resorting to slimy tactics that make me want to gag.

As a sidelight on the story at The Jawa Report about how David Axelrod seems to be 'astroturfing' smears of Sarah Palin all over the Internet, I was curious to see if one could find the name of the announcer Obama uses for his regular video ads. I think it's Cedering Fox.

Cedering Fox was the voice actor who did the in-hall announcing at the Pepsi Center during the DNC Convention this year. She's also a longtime voice-over talent on Democratic Party and candidate spots through her affiliation with Greer, Margolis, Mitchell, Burns and Associates (GMMB), a political consulting and advocacy advertising agency.

Listen to her voice demo and then listen to the Palin smear video. Note in both cases the deep timbre of the voice, the sibilant 's' sounds, and how on the demo reel she varies her voice characterization just as the actor on the Palin video uses a different voice for the Alaskan Independence quote compared to the rest of the ad.

Promo Reel

Not that this is Earth-shattering, just interesting.