ER & Political Product Placement

Sometimes there's something beneficial to watching several episodes of a series back to back. It's way easier to spot trends when the chapters aren't separated by a full week of the mundanities of life.

Take my recent experience with ER, for example.

It's not a big thing - and quite possibly something I wouldn't have noticed had I not been cleaning out the TiVo.

But...in back to back episodes characters from ER mentioned Democratic presidential candidates in passing and in a positive light. Both Obama and Hillary got what might have passed for product placement had they been Gateway computers or hybrid cars. They weren't ringing endorsements a la "I'm voting for Obama!" but they were positive mentions nonetheless.

One wonders - once the writers' strike is over, will there be enough election process remaining for John Edwards or any of the Republican candidates to receive anything approaching equal time?