Obama’s New McCain Is Celebrity Too Campaign Ad

What could be more of a measure of the state of American political discourse than the current campaign 2008 debate over whether Barack Obama is a celebrity and whether if that’s true it means he’s somehow unfit for the Oval Office? The popular — and apparently effective — ad by Republican Senator John McCain’s camp has now been countered by a new Barack Obama ad noting quite that McCain is indeed a celebrity, too.

Here it is:

But wait…

Wasn’t there once a celebrity in California named Ronald Reagan whose fame helped him get an initial audience to outline his conservative ideas? And isn’t one of McCain’s close friends someone who is now governor of California — a celebrity, whom McCain didn’t speak out against and oppose due to his celebrity when he successfully won the California recall election and re-election? Is this celebrity politician strongly backing McCain?

But the McCain ad — and McCain repeating the celebrity mantra over and over — does work. Otherwise the Obama campaign wouldn’t have done the new ad.

We have posted at LEAST three times over the pasts few years McCain’s incredibly well-done appearance on Saturday Night Live where he proved that he is an excellent comic actor. In one skit, he wore a wig and impersonated then-Attorney General John Ashcroft. We posted them because they were great comedy bits.

McCain has also been a frequent guest over the years on the late-night shows. And in 2000 when he ran, he got rock-star-like crowds, was surrounded by young people, and his picture was all over magazines. Stories were written about his life’s story, his book, his charisma when he spoke to people and how he was trusted.

But, in political terms, doing an ad about Obama’s celebrity was standard Rove operating procedure of using what many perceive as a positive and turning it into a negative. Celebrity=frivolous=lightweight.

So get ready, folks, over a new debate (spearheaded by talk and cable radio political shows) about who is MORE OF a celebrity than the other.

UPDATE: Some other reactions to the ad:
–The Swamp’s Mark Silva:

In the celebrity by association game, which is worse: Paris Hilton or President Bush?

Barack Obama is banking on Bush’s association with John McCain, targeted in a new campaign TV ad that links, with several big “embraces,” the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee for president with the unpopular incumbent Republican president.

It’s a somewhat delayed response to McCain’s own ad, which accused Obama of being a big celebrity and showed the likenesses of Hilton and Britney Spears. It also just goes to show that going on vacation – with Obama in Hawaii this week – does not mean that the campaign show will not go on.

–Andrew Sullivan on McCain’s ad:

When these kinds of attacks contradict each other, it’s a good bet that both are being made not because the McCain camp actually thinks they’re true, but because they’re just trying to find anything to bring the guy down. You throw it all until something sticks. Just like the Clintons did. And that worked out great for the Clintons, didn’t it?

–As usual, My DD’s Jonathan Singer is required reading. Here’s part of what he writes:

I like it. It’s light hearted — the music is peppy, and it does not feel at all disjointed to see the transition from the hit to the “stand by your ad” requirement at the end with Obama smiling and laughing — but it gets the message across that not only is McCain more of a celebrity candidate than Obama (see: Jake Tapper), but moreover the celebrity of his candidacy is much more insidious than that of Obama, with McCain’s well-crafted image covering up his all-too-close relationships with Washington’s special interests and powerful lobbyists.