Obama's "American Stories": Families Profiled In Campaign Ad Still Struggling

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As Election Day neared last fall, the Obama campaign went big with a 30-minute television ad that profiled four American families struggling to keep afloat in a worsening economy. Between each of the "American Stories," as Obama called them, the video showed the candidate on the hustings, promising "a rescue plan for the middle class."

Four months into Obama's presidency, only one of those folks has seen anything resembling a rescue -- and it wasn't because of any government program. After the ad aired, a mysterious angel donor helped cover the costs of surgery and copayments for the Ohio retiree who suffered from crippling rheumatoid arthritis in her right hand.

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But not much has changed for the New Mexico educator. And the Ford employee in Kentucky has been anxiously watching the administration as it guides General Motors into bankruptcy, a process with ripple effects that could cost him his job. Things are bad enough for the fourth person featured, Rebecca Johnston, a 34-year-old mother of four in Missouri, that she has come up with a rescue plan of her own.

Obama said in the ad, Johnston is "all about her family." That's why next week she'll be joining the Army Reserves.

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"My kids' ages range between 15 to 3. At this point I look at it like I can't contribute anything to their college, I can barely make their health care costs, we're just skimming by paycheck to paycheck," Johnston told the Huffington Post.

"When you're as desperate as we feel at this age...you gotta do what you gotta do to make ends meet."

In the ad, Johnston showed Obama's cameraman where she put her kids' snacks in the refrigerator door. Some of the shelves were bare. "If they know this is it for them for the whole week, then they will make it last longer."

Johnston told the Huffington Post that she's enlisting for the family health benefits. "It will considerably cut our costs," she explained. Johnston added that the army will help pay off her student loans and allow her to return to school to earn a bachelor's degree. And Johnston's husband, Brian, will be able to get the knee surgery that Obama said the family had been putting off to pay for other things.

But the benefits come with a price tag. After basic training, Johnston will have to serve one weekend a month and two weeks a year. And she will face the prospect of a war-zone deployment every few years in a six-year commitment.

Sgt. Darron Howell, Johnston's recruiter, told the Huffington Post that she will be enlisting in the 325th Combat Support Hospital based in Independence, Mo., a unit that returned from Afghanistan a few months ago. Johnston will work as a patient administration specialist, a job similar to the one she currently holds at Liberty Hospital. But it isn't just the family health benefits and education funding that motivate her.

"She's got some service-to-country feelings," Howell said. "She's been raised a very patriotic person."

Johnston said she is prepared for deployment in a war zone. "It's a risk I'm willing to take. I'm not opposed to supporting my country," she said. After a year she said that she may switch to active duty. Despite that patriotic upbringing (her brother is headed to Afghanistan in July), Johnston said her parents don't approve of the plan, and neither do some of her friends. "We're just going to have to show them," she said. "What works for one family doesn't necessarily work for another, and just because it's not conventional doesn't make it wrong."

She said that she created a "big giant black binder" that has all the "mom" info her husband will need if she goes to Afghanistan. "It has everything -- all the important phone numbers, medical authorizations, grocery lists, recipes," she said.

Despite her personal sacrifice, Johnston said she still thinks President Obama is doing a decent job.

"I believed in everything that he wanted to do for us," she said. "I'm not disappointed yet."

The positive feelings of the participants in the Obama campaign ad reflect recent polls showing that the president continues to receive high approval ratings despite rising unemployment and economic uncertainties.

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