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Aside from being utterly hilarious, John McCain’s portrayal of Barack Obama as a left-wing celebrity who has traits and a following that are comparable to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears fetched an extraordinary amount of media coverage. The campaign ad also nabbed the attention of one of its main characters: Paris Hilton. She quickly released a “counter” ad, offering a fun-filled response to McCain’s banter; the video went viral, reaching well over five million viewers.
With so much attention being diverted from Obama, his campaign is desperately seeking publicity. While he’s vacationing in Hawaii with his family, the campaign is working feverishly to chip away at John McCain’s credentials. Instead of coming up with their own innovative counter-attack, his staff members are simply regurgitating McCain’s “celeb” routine. Perplexed at the amount of media coverage McCain was able to garner and clearly annoyed with the “celebrity” taunts, the Obama campaign is shooting back:
In his new ad, Obama tries to turn the celebrity theme to his advantage, grafting it to his claim that a McCain presidency would amount to a third term for Bush. That claim has generated a defensive response from McCain. The new Obama ad shows McCain hugging Bush while the voiceover says, “as Washington embraced him, John McCain hugged right back.”
Aside from the fact that the “third-term” rant is getting old, the Obama campaign continues to mislead voters into believing that McCain agrees wholeheartedly with Bush’s polities. The fact of the matter is that McCain differs greatly when considering a number of domestic and international policy issues. Furthermore, wouldn’t it make sense that McCain would agree with Bush on some issues? McCain and Bush are both Republicans, no? Obama agrees with the boilerplate ultra-liberal selling points: universal healthcare, no offshore drilling, higher taxes for pretty much everyone — so why shouldn’t McCain share in some of the more conservative characteristics Republicans typically embrace?
Coincidently, it took the Obama campaign nearly two weeks to come up with a response to the McCain’s celebrity ad. And now, the campaign is hoping to dupe its supporters into helping it reach its maniacal fundraising goals. According to CNN’s Political Ticker,
Barack Obama’s campaign manager said Monday John McCain’s now-famous Paris Hilton/Britney Spears television ad wasn’t just insulting to the Illinois senator, but to his campaign’s legion of supporters as well … and in an e-mail to those supporters Monday, campaign manager David Plouffe is hoping a backlash from that television spot will push Obama over the two million individual donor mark by the party’s convention at the end of August — only six months after the campaign topped one million donors.
Aside from the fact that many supporters of Obama’s campaign (unfortunately members of my generation) are a bit Lemnistic in their inclinations that Obama is going to literally and figuratively save the planet, it is important to note the inherent weaknesses in the above statements. First off, Obama’s campaign supporters may, indeed, respond by donating more money to push the campaign over its goal of two million individuals donors, but wouldn’t an infusion of campaign donations make Obama supporters look like Lemnings? The campaign has apparently admitted that it is hoping that the “backlash from that television spot” will push it towards its fiscal goal. Exploitation? I think so. And the campaign is actually admitting that it hopes to see supporters respond.
Secondly, I would think that a campaign that has reneged on its promise to accept the federal grant for general election spending would do everything in its power to not call attention to yet another flapjack.
Obama continues to act as though he is an anomaly — untouched by the corruption that is so vigorously wedded to the American political system. Simply saying that one is a champion for “change” is ineffective. Obama has yet to champion change; he simply uses the word to ignite a mistaken ideology that he differs from other Washington heavy-hitters. Look at his record. In 2004 he claimed that he did not have the experience to be the nation’s leader and today he is touring the country with an entirely different diatribe:
“You know, I am a believer in knowing what you are doing when you apply for a job, and I think that if I were to seriously consider running on a national ticket I would essentially have to start now, before having served a day in the Senate. Now there are some people that might be comfortable doing that, but I am not one of those people. ” - Barack Obama, November 2004
Don’t believe me about his politics as usual demeanor? Read about his initial state Senate run in Illinois. Obama’s campaign disqualified an incumbent and another potential candidate for office by invalidating signatories one by one. Dirty, though legal, Chicago politics as usual.
Obama sees himself as some soft of pseudo-messiahic character who has come to change American politics forever. But, simply reading his past political actions and his current contradictory statements shows that he is no different from the politicians he is consistently criticizing. Maybe McCain’s right:
“Sen. Obama says that I’m running for a Bush’s third terms. It seems to me he’s running for Jimmy Carter’s second.”
Touché.
Visit Billy Hallowell’s official web site at www.williamhallowell.com.
