CELEBRITY VIDEO McCain’s Paris Hilton Ad Creates Stir
Thursday, July 31, 2008
A new McCain campaingn suggests Obama is all flash and no substance.
The McCain campaign says its new ad comparing Barack Obama with Britney Spears and Paris Hilton is fair and balanced. The Obama campaign and its supporters clearly don’t agree.
“It’s beyond dispute that he has become the biggest celebrity in the world,” McCain campaign strategist Steve Schmidt explained to reporters today. “But do the American people really want to elect the biggest celebrity in the world?”
Asked why the campaign chose these particular celebrities to compare with Obama, campaign manager Rick Davis answered matter of factly, as though the comparison were obvious and indisputable: “What we decided to do was find the top three international celebrities in the world. Britney and Paris came in second and third,” he said.
The Obama campaign initially responded to the ad with a twist on a Britney Spears classic. Said spokesman Tommy Vietor: “On a day when major news organizations across the country are taking Senator McCain to task for a steady stream of false, negative attacks, his campaign has launched yet another. Or, as some might say, ‘Oops! He did it again.’”
McCain campaign officials say they are not worried that voters may perceive the ad as another negative attack from their candidate. Or as sour grapes that their candidate, who has traveled widely, does not seem to draw such large crowds.
“I’d love to think that john McCain was a big international celebrity, but he’s not,” Davis said. “We see him more as a global leader than a global celebrity.”