Running in obscurity

By Contributor Archive

Filed Under Race for White House 2008 on Aug 11 

I have to say I agree with Matt Yglesias’ interpretation of the Obama ad highlighting John McCain’s unquestionable celebrity status. It’s pretty silly.

I would add though that McCain’s charge of “celebrity” did not constitute a per se attack of Obama’s popularity. Rather, McCain’s ad attacked, or at least implied, that Obama was nothing more than a celebrity, that he had as much substance as a Paris Hilton or a Britney Spears. This criticism echoes both conservative and prior HRC charges that Obama is little more than a rhetorician who happened to be in the right place at the right time (which, I might add, makes attacks questioning Obama’s eloquence especially puzzling).

Anyway, the problem with this ad is that it doesn’t rebut McCain’s primary criticism — that Obama is only a celebrity. Obviously, whether or not you believe that is up to debate. I would posit that securing the Democratic nomination from the Clinton political machine, operating a gargantuan and well-oiled campaign, having prescient foreign policy views, and addressing issues in a relatively honest manner, more than accounts for the fact that McCain is literally older than duct tape. But that’s just me.

Comments

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  • joe gores

    Obama is an empty suit. WAKE UP PEOPLE. If you like higher taxes and more illegals than vote for Barry. This country will have many moe friends like Chavez & Castro to name a couple if Barry wins.

    You can’t let that happen!!!

    McCain/Romney ’08

  • Redstate Eddio

    McCain’s ad pointed to the whole idea of Obama being ‘light and fluffy’ – an empty suit, because not only does he not have a record to stand on, he’s shifted positions on the ones he’s supposedly drawn a line in the sand over the last 18 months. Conversely, people know where McCain is – he’s had 20 years to make a track record to work off of. So Obama’s ad, while it tries to paint J-Mac as a beltway boy, doesn’t get the same traction because he has a historical record that can be viewed against the attack. Obama has no history, therefore no track record to buttress the claims of McCain. Their attack angle on J-Mac was flip-flopping for political expediency (to the right or left), which is just plain rubbish; J-Mac’s been a maverick for years (read independent, not flip-flopper), so it’s nothing new, and nothing that really sticks.

    That’s the high risk of nominating a community organizer and freshman senator. Obama better be careful, because J-Mac could in essence paint him into a corner (whether it be true, false, or somewhere in between) if he keeps coming up with clever ads like the last one that pound away at Obama’s lack of experience.

  • Raymond

    I know that I am probably going to be ripped for this next comment but I have to say it…

    I was reading one of the posts to a story on the politico about McCain’s ad and it was riddled with people making post that said “McCain is a dirty old man” and “McCain’s to old to be president” and “A president should be young not an old fart like McCain.”

    These post made me think… why are discriminatory comments based on age tolerated while discriminatory comments based on religion, race, sex, weight, or a host of other differences not. Ageism is illegal in the workplace just like all other types of discrimination are but in general conversation it’s ok to openly ridicule someone because of their age.

    Just plug in some other scenarios into those comments I wrote above, “OBAMA is a dirty BLACK man” and “HILARY’S not MAN ENOUGH to be president” and “A president should be a BAPTIST not a CRACKPOT MORMAN like ROMNEY.”

    All of these comments would be classified by everyone as clearly racist toward each one of the respective candidates so why is playing the “age card” different from playing the “sex card” or the “race card” or the “religion card”? When you insert age and McCain back into those comments does it really change the comment that much or is it just your perception of the comment.

    Everyone on this site is very informed and pretty up to date so I’m sure that you all saw Paris Hilton’s “response” to the McCain ad. It starts out by saying, “He’s the oldest celebrity in the world, really old…” Then Paris proceeds to call him a “white haired dude.” Once again, insert Barack Obama and race into the comment and all of a sudden the message becomes horribly discriminatory. No one would call Obama a “dark skinned dude” right? So why is the demographics of just one candidate open game but yet the demographics of the other faux pas?

    (This is the part were I get on a soapbox)

    We should respect our elders like John McCain, Ted Kennedy, John Warner, or Robert Byrd. We should respect all of our fellow men and women in leadership regardless of age, sex, race, religion or creed.

    I would hope people could stop concentrating on the demographics of the candidates and start concentrating on the issues. Who cares if you are Black or White, Young or Old, Mormon or Catholic, Gay or Straight, Man or Woman?

  • Troy La Mana

    Obama is all style and naive substance.

    • David Kaiser

      Troy is a big poopie face!

      • Troy La Mana

        Because you were about to say that?

  • http://www.adroll.com Adam

    Wow, I wonder what it was like before duct tape? Everything must’ve been laying around broken all the time. Being old unto itself isn’t a problem, except when you’re out of touch with some of the core trends that have and will continue to shape our culture. Such as the use of computers for example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzi9cXgmhyc&feature=related.

    • Fabs

      Wow, what would MacGuyver have ever done back in the old days before duct tape???

      • David Kaiser

        Die?