Paris Hilton spoof be damned; McCain continues to bombard Obama's celebrity
In its latest ad, the McCain campaign taunts: 'Is the biggest celebrity in the world ready to help your family?' Obama campaign calls the spot 'another dishonest attack.'
Paris Hilton spoofed his ad campaign, but the woman notorious for being famous did not deter Republican presidential candidate John McCain's ongoing attack on the celebrity of his Democratic rival, Barack Obama.
As Obama campaigned on energy issues, the McCain campaign today released its latest advertisement, titled "Family," that includes the taunt: "Is the biggest celebrity in the world ready to help your family?"
The current ad, immediately attacked by the Obama campaign, does not feature celebrities such as Hilton and Britney Spears, whom McCain used in an earlier ad. Hilton, who unveiled her version of an energy plan, tweaked the elderly McCain on Tuesday with her own video chastising "the white-haired dude."
But the latest McCain salvo makes the same political point, that Obama, shown before a joyous crowd, is not a leader, but a publicity phenomenon. The ad, according to the McCain campaign, argues that Obama supports higher taxes and increased government spending.
"Is the biggest proponent of George Bush's tired, failed policies ready to bring about change?" Obama spokesman Bill Burton shot back in a prepared statement. "Another day brings another dishonest attack from John McCain.
"While Sen. McCain knows that Sen. Obama has proposed cutting taxes for 95% of American families, what he's not telling us is that he wants to give $4 billion in tax breaks to the oil companies, continue giving tax breaks to corporations that ship our job overseas, and provide no direct tax relief for more than 100 million middle-class families. It's time to retire these old policies and bring new energy to America," Burton said.
There has always been a fine line in politics between fame and success. Pollsters frequently measure name recognition because it often gives a clue as to how the public eventually votes.
According to the latest poll by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, nearly half of those surveyed said they are tired of hearing about Obama; about one-quarter said the same about McCain.
According to the study by Pew and the Project for Excellence in Journalism, Obama, 47, and a freshman senator from Illinois, has appeared in more news stories this year than his principal opponent. More people say they have heard more about him than about Arizona Sen. McCain, who will be 72 this month and has been a fixture on the political scene since he was a prisoner in the Vietnam War.
