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Opinion: You, too, can be David Axelrod

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So have you been sitting in your living room watching TV and rolling your eyes at the political ads and thinking, ‘my daughter’s hamster could do a better job?’

Yeah, we know. We read the blog comments sections, too. There are a lot of experts out there.

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Well, the folks at You2Gov.com are giving you armchair communications directors a shot at doing your own ad. Though, frankly, the name they conjured up for their contest makes us wonder about their own marketing acumen: ‘The You2Gov $1,000 Cash Contest for Best 30 Second TV Commercial for Each Major Party Presidential Candidate!’ Not exactly ‘The quicker picker upper’ of slogans, you know?

But the contest itself could be fun. The deal is you create a 30-second ad for either John McCain or Barack Obama -- or one for each if you’re feeling ambitious -- and upload it to YouTube then submit the link at You2Gov’s site by Sept. 30. Registered users of the political social-networking site get to vote but ‘an impartial panel of experts’ will decide the winner (think: Supreme Court, 2000 presidential election).

Oh, and according to You2Gov, it is a two-party system. They say you can make ads for McCain or Obama, but they leave out Ralph Nader, Bob Barr and other third-party types. Which is too bad -- a few of Ron Paul‘s backers came up with some pretty clever ads on their own.

Winners get $1,000. And remember, the idea is to make ads for a candidate, not against one. Let’s not go negative, people -- leave that for the experts.

-- Scott Martelle

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