I was going to vote for Barack Obama anyway, but this video, released today, has really sealed my vote. Barack Obama is really good at speaking plain English — having conversations with his audience rather than politician rhetoric. I feel like he’s read the first set of theses from the Cluetrain Manifesto, a hallmark of my beliefs in communication and marketing.

Check it out for yourself. He isn’t really saying anything new, but he’s doing it so forwardly — no sitrring music, no overlays of American flags, no shots of him with his sleeves rolled up, working hard for his country. Just his face, a camera, and some words. The only evidence of it being a video production and not a face-to-face conversation is a slight zoom-in as he taked about the war in Iraq, and his web address at the bottom of the screen.

This is the kind of honesty and simplicity our country needs right now.