MoveOn continues to shill for Obama

So now MoveOn.Org wants you to "make a 30-second TV ad that tells the nation why Barack Obama should be our next President."

Not a spot that advances the cause of peace in the Middle East or takes on the military-industrial complex.

Not a circular setting out why we need single-payer, universal health care.

Not a plug for economic justice.

No.

You are invited to make a video that will "push Obama to victory," as if the triumph of the senator's DNC-lite politics is the best we can hope for from the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity provided by the failed presidency of George W. Bush.

You may see the need for profound, radical change if we are to recover from a half-century of failed leadership; what you are offered is a campaign whose ultimate success will do no more than validate the hypothesis that the only thing wrong with the John Kerry scenario was the casting.

With a deadline of April Fool's Day, MoveOn today launched an open call for online submissions to "Obama in 30 Seconds." The public will select a group of finalists from among the competing entries; a panel of "top artists, film professionals, and netroots heroes" will pick a winner from among the finalists.

Why celebrities -- the judges include Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Naomi Wolf, Oliver Stone, John Legend, Donna Edwards, and Markos Moulitsas -- are better qualified than the organization's own members to choose among ads that are supposed to be "of the people, by the people, and for the people" is not explained.

MoveOn will sponsor airings of the winning commercial nationally, and the winner will receive a gift certificate for $20,000 in video equipment.

That members of the elite find Obama's pro-status quo campaign captivating should occasion no surprise. But on November 4, if he gets that far, middle- and working-class Democrats and independents will be invited to express their opinions about the senator's vaporous politicking.

And what they say then shouldn't come as a surprise, either.