Washington, Oct. 30: Last night was a night of “shock and awe” by Barack Obama in the final stretch of his nearly two-year-long campaign for the White House.

He was on seven television channels simultaneously for half an hour in a single “informercial” — information commercial — paid advertisement at a cost estimated at $1 million per channel.

Not since Ross Peorot in 1992 has any US presidential candidate spent such a fortune on a single election advertisement on television. Perot was a maverick billionaire with oodles of cash and no chance of winning the election 16 years ago.

But he took away enough votes from George Bush, the current President’s father, to enable Bill Clinton to win the presidency.

Hardly had the informercial got over and viewers finished discussing the spectacular television blitz, came the icing on the campaign cake: the only joint appearance by Bill Clinton and Obama during the entire presidential campaign.

The two men, both spellbinding orators, appeared together in the tough battleground state of Florida, which Obama is trying to take away from the Republicans as sweet revenge for the Democratic defeat in 2000 with “hanging chads” and after repeated recounts.

According to today’s average of all the polls in Florida, Obama is ahead of Republican John McCain by a slender 3.5 per cent with nearly six per cent of likely voters still undecided.

The Clintons, both Bill and his wife Hillary, are extremely popular in Florida especially among the crucial bank of Jewish voters who have relocated from New York.

It was a reflection of Bill Clinton’s continuing appeal in Florida that although the rally began after 11 pm in Kissimmee, it drew a crowd of over 35,000, which is huge by the standards of US politics.

The joint event attracted nationwide attention because of speculation for several months that Bill Clinton had not forgiven Obama for scuttling Hillary Clinton's dream of going back to live in the White House and that there was tension between the two men.

But Obama campaign sources said they were holding back the joint appearance until days before the election for maximum appeal to the voters, especially in a battleground state.

For the same reason, former vice-president and Nobel laureate Al Gore will campaign for Obama from Saturday. He too will stump for the Democrat in Florida.

If anyone missed Obama last night despite all this, he was also on the late night comedy programme, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart last night, his fourth appearance on this show.

Late night comedies are hugely popular in the US and politicians love to appear on them as a way of appealing to non-political audiences by pitching their sense of humour. There are fears, however, that Obama may be going for the overkill on television and may put off voters in the final days.

As of last week, 150 per cent more of Obama advertisements than McCain's were aired in the crucial states of Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia, according to television industry data.

McCain is restricted in his spending because he is taking $84.1 million in public money for his campaign. Obama has refused public financing and in September alone he raised $150 million from his supporters.

The Republicans are portraying their candidate as the underdog on this account which may have some appeal among voters in the light of Obama's extravagance.