Based on the brick wall backdrop and Michelle's black and white outfit, it appears that back in March, after dining with "Dinner with Barack and Michelle" contest winners, the first couple took the time at the Boundary Road Restaurant in Washington, D.C. to attempt to raise more cash by injecting a little romance into the campaign and taping a video in which they recount their first date. 

The goal of the ad is to coax smitten sycophants into sending in small donations for a chance to be entered into a raffle where a lucky winner and guest can share a double-date night with America's most "hip, cutting edge, cultural, sensitive" president and the average neighborhood girl he fell in love with so many years ago.

The tacky commercial is strikingly similar to the interviews featured at the conclusion of the 1989 Billy Crystal/Meg Ryan movie When Harry Met Sally, where older couples sit side by side and recount the early stages of their relationships. 

Ironically, the Obama love story also started in 1989 in a Chicago law firm, where Michelle LaVaughn Robinson spent the summer mentoring a young summer associate named Barry Soetoro/Barack Obama.  The couple's first official date took place that same year, but instead of the romantic comedy the campaign contest ad mimics, beguiling charmer Barack decided to take his date to the racially charged Spike Lee movie Do the Right Thing.

After visiting a museum and walking off lunch in a commendable "Let's Move" fashion, the couple then ramped up the romance with the Spike Lee flick.  The film stars Obama fundraiser Lee, who plays an angry black man named Mookie whose neighborhood is on fire with racial unrest.  At one point Mookie, the star of the movie, passionately calls Italian pizza store owners in his Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn neighborhood "Dago, wop, guinea, garlic-breath, pizza-slingin', spaghetti-bendin', Vic Damone, Perry Como, Luciano Pavarotti, Sole Mio, nonsingin' motherf***ers." 

Lee's profanity-laced film must have really stuck with Obama, because 20-something years later, the words "do the right thing" still emanate from the president's lips every time he circumvents Congress and signs another executive order.

During the ad's quirky banter, Michelle recalls Barack taking a break from community organizing to court her for the first time.  Mrs. Obama says, "It was a cool date, we spent the whole day together, he was showing me all facets of his character. We went to the Art Institute."

The captivating Mr. Barack "I know how to manipulate people" Obama displays a familiar facet of his character when he responds to his wife's comment by smirking and haughtily looking straight into the camera and saying, "Art -- guys out there, it impresses people." 

Strolling down memory lane, talking over each other, Mrs. Obama responds by saying that after leaving the Art Institute, she and her date "took a nice long walk down Michigan Avenue," also known as the street where Senator Obama's pre-election headquarters would one day be located.

Turning to her husband, Michelle politely requests that he refresh her memory by asking, "Did we go to the movie first?"  Barack, completely ignoring her question, brings up dinner instead, saying, "Uh, we didn't have dinner; we actually had lunch at the Art Institute.  There was a little courtyard, with a little fountain."  After having her memory jogged, sentimental Michelle softly says, "Yeah that was nice," and Barry agrees: "Yeah it was very nice."

From there it was off to Do the Right Thing.  Now, as first dates go, it couldn't get more romantic than that.

Apparently, spending two hours with potty-mouthed pizza delivery boy Mookie did nothing to deter Michelle's affection for her suitor, because much like the American electorate, the angry street activist with all the racist/bomb-throwing friends instantly impressed the young lawyer.  According to the first lady, "[h]e showed all the sides -- he was hip, cutting edge, cultural, sensitive."

Who else but a sensitive man like Barack Obama would have the foresight to woo a woman by choosing a lunch spot that featured a water show?  Toward the end of the ad, Michelle looks at him again and says, "The fountain -- nice touch."  And from the sound of things, the couple's date with destiny was certainly a moment in time where, for Michelle, at least, "the rise of the oceans [did] ... slow and [the] planet [did] ... heal."

After Mrs. Obama says "Nice touch," winking rakish bon vivant Barack Obama looks directly into the camera, "grins, shrugs his shoulders," and says, "Take tips, gentlemen."

It's clear that as result of the date, Michelle fell in love with the community organizer-turned-lawyer.  However, what she chose not to mention in the ad is that her mentee also took her to a Chicago church basement to attend a community-organizing meeting.  It was there that Michelle first heard and adopted the Saul Alinsky mantra: "the world as it is and the world as it should be," and the rest is history.

In the end, corny recollections and convenient omissions aside, one thing is certain: if nothing else, the campaign raffle ad certainly confirms that the sort of "wink-wink" false charm Barack Obama is so adept at using has been finely been honed over the years, because he used it to politically schmooze all of America in much the same manner that he schmoozed Michelle.

Author's content: www.jeannie-ology.com