John McCain: the real celebrity

John McCain has gone after Barack Obama as "just another vacuous celebrity," all style and no substance. However, not only has Obama shown tremendous policy and political substance on the campaign trail, John McCain is the one that has come under criticism for his frivolous "celebrity" ad, which juxtaposed images of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, against Senator Obama. And, now, even the "celebrity" charge is coming under scrutiny, as some basic fact checking demonstrates that John McCain is the one that’s more accurately described as the real celebrity. Consider the following, via TalkingPointsMemo.com:

Andrew Sullivan makes a good point. For the ‘celebrity’ in the campaign, how many sitcoms has Barack Obama done guest spots on? How many movies has he done cameos in? How many times has he hosted Saturday Night Live. As John McCain’s IMDB bio shows, he’s done a lot. 24, Wedding Crashers, The Tony Danza show, numerous appearances on Saturday Night Live. It’s another example of the curve that John McCain gets graded on. Of these two, there’s no question who the more preening candidate or the bigger ‘celebrity’ is.

And there’s this, via Political Punch:

Which presidential candidate hosted Saturday Night Live (hint — the musical guests were The White Stripes)?

Which one had cameos on “24” and “Wedding Crashers“?

Whose wife secretly got her pilot’s license and owns a jet?

Who is pals with Warren Beatty?

Whose daughter is friends with Heidi from MTV’s The Hills?

Whose wife once told Vogue, explaining the purchase of a 7th or 8th house, this one a beach house, “When I bought the first one, my husband, who is not a beach person, said, ‘Oh this is such a waste of money; the kids will never go. Then it got to the point where they used it so much I couldn’t get in the place. So I bought another one.”

Whose family credit cards have been known to ring up more than $500,000 in charges in one month?

So, who’s the real celebrity?

It’s Paris Hilton against John McCain

Paris Hilton has responded to John McCain’s “Celebrity ad,” featuring images of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton in a smear ad against Senator Obama. Check out Paris’ ad, it’s funny:

John McCain shows his hand, comes up with the “race card”

Someone get this man on CNN or MSNBC, he deserves to be heard and not just read. I’m just happy to see a member of the so-called mainstream media calling John McCain’s bullshit for what it is, latent racism posing as legitimate political discourse.

But I’ll let Bob Herbert put it in his own words, he writes:

Gee, I wonder why, if you have a black man running for high public office — say, Barack Obama or Harold Ford — the opposition feels compelled to run low-life political ads featuring tacky, sexually provocative white women who have no connection whatsoever to the black male candidates.

Spare me any more drivel about the high-mindedness of John McCain.

[…]

Senator McCain has only upped the ante, smearing Mr. Obama every which way from sundown. On Wednesday, The Washington Post ran an extraordinary front-page article that began:

“For four days, Senator John McCain and his allies have accused Senator Barack Obama of snubbing wounded soldiers by canceling a visit to a military hospital because he could not take reporters with him, despite no evidence that the charge is true.”

Evidence? John McCain needs no evidence.

[…]

Now, from the hapless but increasingly venomous McCain campaign, comes the slimy Britney Spears and Paris Hilton ad. The two highly sexualized women (both notorious for displaying themselves to the paparazzi while not wearing underwear) are shown briefly and incongruously at the beginning of a commercial critical of Mr. Obama.

The Republican National Committee targeted Harold Ford with a similarly disgusting ad in 2006 when Mr. Ford, then a congressman, was running a strong race for a U.S. Senate seat in Tennessee. The ad, which the committee described as a parody, showed a scantily clad woman whispering, “Harold, call me.”

Both ads were foul, poisonous and emanated from the upper reaches of the Republican Party. (What a surprise.) Both were designed to exploit the hostility, anxiety and resentment of the many white Americans who are still freakishly hung up on the idea of black men rising above their station and becoming sexually involved with white women.

[…]

Mr. Obama told [an audience]: “What they’re going to try to do is make you scared of me. You know, he’s not patriotic enough. He’s got a funny name. You know, he doesn’t look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills, you know. He’s risky.”

The audience seemed to appreciate his comments. Mr. Obama was well-received.

But John McCain didn’t appreciate them. RACE CARD! RACE CARD! The McCain camp started bellowing, and it hasn’t stopped since. With great glee bursting through their feigned outrage, the campaign’s operatives and the candidate himself accused Senator Obama of introducing race into the campaign — playing the race card, as they put it, from the very bottom of the deck.

[…]

Senator Obama has spoken more honestly and thoughtfully about race than any other politician in many years. Senator McCain is the head of a party that has viciously exploited race for political gain for decades.

He’s obviously more than willing to continue that nauseating tradition.

Amen!

UPDATE (8/4): Damn! I got my wish, here’s Bob Herbert on MSNBC up against conservative mouth piece Joe Scarborough.

John McCain channels Britney Spears

In his latest attack ad John McCain compares Senator Obama to Britney Spears. Yeah, Senator Obama to Britney-friggin’-Spears. Let’s take a closer look, and see who sounds more like the tabloid princess, via Political Insider:

Speaking of celebrity, the Obama campaign sent out this interesting comparison of Sen. John McCain and Britney Spears:

Britney Spears (CNN, 10/30/03):
CARLSON: A lot of entertainers have come out against the war in Iraq. Have you?
SPEARS: Honestly, I think we should just trust our president in every decision that he makes and we should just support that, you know, and be faithful in what happens.
CARLSON: Do you trust this president?
SPEARS: Yes, I do.

John McCain (The Mike Gallgher Show, March 2008)
“No one has supported President Bush on Iraq more than I have.”

John McCain (MSNBC, 8/20/06):
GREGORY: Do you have confidence in the President and his national security team to lead the war at this stage?
MCCAIN: I do. I do. I have confidence in the President, and I believe that he is well aware of the severity of the situation.

Sean Tavis’ “The 3000″

This is a great example of how creative and enterprising candidates are availing themselves of the Internet to connect to like-minded constituents to organize, and summon resources.

From the LA Times:

OLATHE, KAN. — When Sean Tevis decided to run for a seat in the Kansas Legislature, he faced a serious problem: money. Local political advisors warned the campaign novice that he would need a war chest of at least $26,000 to compete against his entrenched Republican rival.

[…]

So Tevis created a droll online cartoon strip to appeal to potential supporters wherever they might be, using stick figures to represent himself, his GOP opponent and others.

More importantly, this is a great lesson for progressives running for office at the local level.

Oh yeah, here’s a snippet of Sean Tavis’ comic strip that’s helped him raise over $90,000 so far: