May I have more silly and celebrity please?
With the McCain campaign’s recent “lipstick on a pig” manufactured outrage and terrible misrepresented sex education ad against Obama coupled with the Obama campaign’s equally silly “McCain can’t e-mail” ad, I just have to say this:
The is no honor among thieves…
The McCain campaign stole the “change” mantra and the Obama campaign stole the “experience” mantra. And now they are trying to out silly each other. Punditry says this hurts Obama more than McCain. I beg to differ. Both look like dunces. When I saw Obama and McCain emerge from their primaries, I actually thought that this could be a different type of election. One where issues took precedence and they would show some statesmanship. Alas! I was wrong. It’s jailhouse humor time and the inmates are craving for more.
I blame America’s insatiable appetite for celebrities. Barack Obama became a celebrity. So much so that the McCain campaign went and got the self-proclaimed “pitbull with lipstick” Sarah Palin. And Palin’s celebrity status went up exponentially. Look at how Saturday Night Live is working hard to pull a former Saturday Night Live cast member back into the fold to play Sarah Palin. Obama’s celebrity caused the McCain campaign to get silly and Palin’s light speed celebrity caused the Obama campaign to get silly. I think I’m going to start reading Perez Hilton more since he knows how to cover celebrities THE RIGHT WAY instead of the utterly weird way political pundits cover celebrities: without any humor or flair! Slackers…
But since this election as morphed into who can out celeb and out silly each other, I have a clear picture of who should be our next President and Vice-President. The ticket I’m writing in and voting this November. A ticket that will bring this country together or they will kick our butts: Sarah Palin/Michelle Obama ’08!!
Just look at them!
That’s enough edge to cause our enemies to tremble, eh? Domestic financial trouble? BAH! Prez Palin applies the “pitbull jaw lock” on Wall Street. That’ll learn those New York City types! Senate getting fiesty? VP Obama (Michelle) will go straight Black Panthers on them!
The Pitbull and the Black Radical… That’s a celebrity, historic American Presidential ticket for the ages. You may hate Hollywood but Hollywood doesn’t hate you… You big celebrity lovers!
UPDATE
I just realized that Sarah Palin and Michelle Obama look like my junior high school principal and assistant principal. Even better! Nothing like having a few grade school principals sitting in cabinet meetings. Someone gets out of line, it’s off to detention.
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20 Responses to “May I have more silly and celebrity please?”
Well, I guess it is official now. With the new Obama ad, they have given up any pretext of running a 'different kind of campaign'. Of course, McCain jumped that shark, too.
Once again, so little substance, so much fluff and mud-slinging (fluff-slinging?).
The Who got it SO right in 1971.
Hey – what happened to the edit feature?
Your right AustinRoth. Obama has said “screw it” and is jumping into the fray. Now all we need is the campaigns to start hiring comics to help right their ads and we'll be set. Pure, unadulterated entertainment.
And to both candidates, to borrow a lyrics from the song “Good Lick” by Basement Jaxx:
Good luck! Good luck!
Good luck in your new bed!
Yay! More hateful spewing and character assasination from BOTH campaigns! We're back in business, boys. Man, all of that policy and issues stuff was boring me so much I was about to slit my wrists just to see some color!
AustinRoth: Seems like Disqus is having a hiccup. I'll look into it.
Jazz: Policy?? Issues?? That's soooo 1787.
Howsa 'bout we put the candidates on the show “Hole In The Wall” to prove their worth?
[...] T-STEEL wrote an interesting post today on May I have more silly and celebrity please?. Here’s a quick excerpt: [...]
Excellent post, T-Steel.
Yes, the 2008 Presidential Election has definitely jumped the shark. AR calls that right.
Folks may disagree at what point, but it is clear now that we have left the mundane world of issues and policy far far behind.
I cannot recall a more issue-light election in my lifetime. Unfortunately for us all, it is only too likely that T-Steel's comment will become reality in a week or two: “all we need is the campaigns to start hiring comics like Chris Rock and Jeff Foxworthy to help write their ads and we'll be set.”
I don't know who to blame most here, but I feel somehow that the mainstream media has let America down.
Senator Obama did not create his own celebrity; in fact, I imagine he was more surprised than anyone when it happened. He is a bit of a cerebral academic, after all. And of course it was the media . . . not the McCain campaign . . . that created Palin's overnight “lightspeed celebrity”.
Personally, I have tuned out of much of it . . . which is surprising to me as I love politics. It is just too much.
I wonder on what basis people will vote in November?
Thanks Marlowecan.
It's all Hollywood right now. We have “seriously” serious issues in this country regarding our future economic health. Russia flying in bombers to Venezuela that can carry nukes (President Hugo Chavez must be ecstatic). So on and so forth. Instead things have deteriorated to USA's new action packed political thriller:
The Messiah, The Maverick, and The Lipstick Laden Pit Bull!
Don't miss it… Tivo it!
Ughh. I hate the phrase “Jump the Shark.” It needs to die.
+++
Double standard much? McCain has been running negative and outright false ads for weeks now. Obama runs ONE ad that mentions an absolutely TRUE fact about McCain (that he himself admitted) and now they are both even in playing in the muck?
Here's what I think, you both want to believe that both campaigns and both parties are using the same tactics. You're just grasping at anything that will back up that preconceived notion.
ChrisWWW: Why did Obama have to approve that e-mail ad? It's dumb. I agree that McCain's attack was worse. So what is Obama's deal? He could have done a myriad of different ads. Why bring up an “I don't do e-mail” angle?
I'll tell you what Obama should have done if he was going to be different. He should have called a press conference and said the following:
I'm challenging you Senator McCain to call me a sexist. Look at that camera and call me a sexist so I can look at you back and call you a liar. Don't let your surrogates and staff fight do your dirty work. Be an honorable man, like you have always been, and call me a sexist directly. And I will be honorable man and call you a liar directly. Because you are a political coward in fabricating a lie like this about me and not representing it yourself. So again, call me a sexist directly.
That's change I can believe in…. That's upping the ante and smacking down at the same time.
T_Steel,
There was more to that ad than just McCain's unfamiliarity with a computer. The point is to distance McCain from everyday people. McCain doesn't know how to use email? Doesn't everybody in America younger than 65 know how to do that?
At the National Service forum, McCain admitted that he was out of touch, and that's why Palin is a good pick, because she's down in the trenches. Isn't that telling? How can he care about your problems if he can't even imagine them? How can he care when he thinks $50 an hour isn't a high wage?
Obama should be pushing this point, because it's true. We can argue over whether or not the email thing was the right angle, but the overall message has saliency.
If all Obama does is *respond* to McCain's negative ads, then Obama is going to lose, because McCain is then controlling the media coverage of the campaign from both sides.
Besides, McCain said that Obama meant the pig remark as an insult to Palin when he went on the View yesterday. So he's already on videotape as backing up that bullsh**.
He backed it up on The View without Obama calling him out on it when it first happened directly. I'm a big fan of “defending one's self” immediately and forcefully. And I'm not saying Obama has to respond to all negative ads. But when someone takes a commonly used phrase (that he used too) and flip it to mean something else, you bust their ass rhetorically. If I'm a sexist, your a coward. Ball in your court. And as long as the person keeps up with the BS, I will call them a coward (a political one… you won't throw in military service as a shield). That is what pisses me off about Obama now: he's being too cool. I appreciate and respect a cool demeanor but it has its limits.
I know what the Obama's ad is trying to say. I'm frankly just fed up with these ads. I rather see Obama and McCain blasting each other on a stage together (or in some town hall).
T_Steel,
Andrew Sullivan thinks that Obama has to maintain his cool, because the entire McCain campaign strategy right now is designed to force Obama to lose his cool, thus becoming the stereotypical angry black man.
It wouldn't surprise me if that were really the strategy.
I agree with Chris on two points: The phrase, “jump the shark” needs to be retired, but more importantly, we need to keep in mind the respective degrees to which these candidates are distorting the truth. McCain is waaayyyyy out in front when it comes to this, and nothing good would be served by adopting the politically correct and inaccurate view they are both doing it equally.
Marlowecan : “I don't know who to blame most here, but I feel somehow that the mainstream media has let America down.”
Agreed, but I'm not about to let the “audience” off the hook when they continue to respond to the fluff and garbage as though it deserves any consideration whatsoever.
I thought about the angry black man angle many times. In fact I was about to write a fairly lengthy post about the subject. But I stopped it mid-draft because I just strongly feel that now is the right time for Obama to show some fire. Right here, right now. On the “lipstick” and kindergarten ad. Timing is everything. Once delivered, pull back, get on message, and watch the other side go crazy.
If the McCain campaign then turns Obama's fire into an angry black man angle, the Obama campaign will have ammunition for WEEKS. What, a black man shoes a little righteous fire within the context of the campaign and he's now some sort militant? What is this? The Jim Crow days?
JSpencer said: “Agreed, but I'm not about to let the “audience” off the hook when they continue to respond to the fluff and garbage as though it deserves any consideration whatsoever.”
We love it. I consume my fair share of fluff and garbage on the television. But in this year's presidential race, I want the fluff and garbage to be at a scarce minimum.
Agreed T. All in the right time and place…
Well, my highminded friends, apparently America does not want what you want. America is just fine with an issue-free campaign that fits into the American Idol mold we love so much.
Obama certainly didn't start down this path, either with McCain or Hillary. In both cases it had *literally* gotten to the point that everyone was saying “he can't throw a punch,” “Obama has to hit back” etc, meanwhile the polls showing that the negative B.S. works for America.
I'm disgusted.
GreenDreams you are right. What are we to do? Our free press serves it up hot and steaming and many of us eat it up. It has become part of American culture.