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What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do? Eleven.

Nigel Tufnel (aka Christopher Guest), This is Spinal Tap

Next Wednesday evening at 8 p.m., EST, Barack Obama will commandeer U.S. airwaves - Fox, NBC, CBS and, likely, ABC - with a juggernaut 30-minute advertisement.

For generations of Americans, this long-form narrative will seem a new, new thing, though it really is an old, old thing, dating back to Adlai Stevenson's presidential run in 1952. "He bought chunks of time on Tuesday nights at 10:30," says David Schwartz, chief curator at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, N.Y. "He would go on and do a long speech because he didn't believe in commercials."

It's not that Governor Stevenson's campaign avoided the arrival of television as a new medium for battleground politics. The museum's archives feature a crazy quilt of the governor's TV spots, including that of a songstress in the style of a McGuire sister singing "I Love the Gov." ("Didn't know much about him before he came; but now my heart's a ballot that bears his name." Yes, really.)

"He didn't like the idea of these short commercials," says Mr. Schwartz. "His campaign ran a few ads but he didn't appear in them. He didn't think it was the right thing to do. He thought it was undignified. He liked speeches."

History records not only the landslide loss to Dwight D. Eisenhower but the general's far more masterful use of the small screen.

There was the slogan that is still recognizable today - "I Like Ike" - which became a jingle - "You like Ike, I like Ike, everybody likes Ike" - topped by the image of the man himself sticking, says Mr. Schwartz, to three easily digestible TV-spot sound bites. One was to end the war in Korea; two was the economy ("My Mamie gets after me about the high cost of living"); three was to clean up Washington.

Eisenhower spent about $2-million (U.S.) on his ads.

Evan Tracey, president of the Campaign Media Analysis Group in Arlington, Va., puts the current ad spend total for Barack Obama at $190-million, and in the seconds it takes to think about that, the number jumps higher. The democratic hopeful's website features 96 commercials it says are "on the air."

Mr. Tracey expects Mr. Obama's total ad spend will nudge $250-million when all is said and done.

"At this point Senator Obama really has more money in the bank than there is television time left to buy," he says, adding that Mr. Obama spent close to $32-million last week alone.

The final tally will far outstrip George W. Bush's record-holding $188-million, but even that number doesn't get at the quantum of spending.

"The difference is that Senator Obama did it in four fewer months than Bush," says Mr. Tracey. "If you're familiar with the Spinal Tap movie, this election started at 11."

In other words, loudly.

And it's not over.

The 30-minute spot, deployed in the past by John F. Kennedy in 1960 and most recently by deficit-fighter Ross Perot in 1992, carries an estimated per-network cost of $1-million. (Fox, which initially kvetched about a game delay should the World Series run to Game 6, issued an uncharacteristically unembellished release that it "will accommodate Senator Obama's desire to communicate with voters in this long-form format.")

"What this does is it creates a national stage," says Mr. Tracey. He expects the media coverage of the half-hour telecast to be akin to a campaign debate.

"There'll be a couple of days of buildup before it and there'll be a couple of days of analysis after it. That gets you closer to the election. It's a way to control the media as much as anything else."

It isn't just the weight of Mr. Obama's ad messaging, but the layering of the message itself.

"Senator Obama has about a four-tiered message right now," Mr. Tracey says. "He's got very positive biographical spots. He's got a number of spots talking about issues like health care and education. He's got a bunch of negative ads that basically counterbalance everything that McCain is saying. He's got other ads that are talking about campaign logistics - getting out the vote, register to vote."

Recent analysis out of the Wisconsin Advertising Project concluded that all of Mr. McCain's ads running in Wisconsin in the Sept. 28-to-Oct. 4 period were negative, while only a third Mr. Obama's ads airing in the state were attack ads. Mr. Obama's spending outpaced Mr. McCain's by close to $300,000 in the period, allowing him the opportunity for that layered message Mr. Tracey talks about.

"McCain only has the money to run one campaign and that has to be in essence a negative campaign against Obama," says Mr. Tracey.

He can but marvel at Mr. Obama spending half a million dollars on TV ads last week in the Chicago media market. "He didn't do that because he's worried about losing Illinois. He did that because Chicago gets 13 per cent of TV households in Indiana. There are incredible amounts of waste in buying Chicago for that 13 per cent of Indiana, but it doesn't matter to the Obama campaign. They can do that."

Ditto Obama-spending in Boston to reach into New Hampshire; Washington, D.C., to get into northern Virginia; Miami for its huge exposure to South Florida.

"Those are four TV markets that McCain can't afford to buy in right now. ... It doesn't matter how many dollars [Obama] wastes because he has so many more than McCain."

Mr. Tracey seizes a military metaphor.

"It's the old Roman legion where they would throw legion upon legion against opponents and they didn't care if their old soldiers died because they had more."

Mr. McCain, whose ad spending is restricted by campaign finance rules as a result of accepting public funding, is barred from accepting private donations and his funding is capped at $84-million.

Mr. Tracey credits Mr. McCain with being as clever as he can be within the confines of campaign finance rules.

"He went on public financing to secure loans to save his campaign from going under, then off public financing for the primary, then back on for the general [election]," he says. "And he's allowed to use Republican Party money as long as the ads are about issues. ... If it weren't for how well Obama has done, we'd be talking about how well McCain has gamed campaign finance laws."

Instead, the nation awaits Wednesday night. No, not the Rays and the Phillies, should that come to pass, but the realization that for all the Internet finesse of the Obama campaign, it's the given-up-for-dead medium of network television that will cap the candidate's promise of a 50-state campaign.