Change+Problem+?=Obama?

Two leading infomercial stars agree: Barack Obama's half-hour self-promotion last night was a flop.

"I don't see enough smiling. Doom and gloom totally," said Anthony Sullivan, one of the biggest names in infomercial history.

"I feel depressed right now," added Sullivan, an Englishman famous for his infomercials touting the Swivel Sweeper and Smart Chopper. The only thing saving Obama, Sullivan said, was when the candidate appeared live at the end speaking at a rally in Florida.

"I think it needed it. I was about to throw myself through a window because it was depressing," Sullivan said.

He and AJ Khubani, who has produced infomercials for 25 years, said Obama also fell short of offering solutions to the dire problems he laid out.

"I didn't see a payoff. Classic infomercial is you show the before and you show the after. I didn't see the music or the crashing waves of the Pacific," Sullivan said.

He joked the producer "needs a spanking" for lacking optimism.

Khubani said: "Every infomercial lays out common problems, whether it's a flabby belly or acne, and then it gives a solution. In this case the solution is Obama."

But Obama didn't pitch the product - himself - convincingly enough, he argued.

"We always spend much more time on the solution than the problem and he did the opposite," Khubani added.

— Sally Goldenberg, on the candidate's warm-up set for his appearance on The Daily Show, in The New York Post