Politics has always included celebrities, but attacking notable personalities may cause unintended negative reactions. Association with powerful media magnets, actors and celebrities has been an inexpensive method for politicians to achieve notoriety. However, with John McCain’s recent Celeb ad equating celebrities Paris Hilton and Britney Spears to Barack Obama, a media and voter backlash has been triggered.
The media impact, a necessary factor of presidential politics since the days of the Nixon-Kennedy debates, has come full circle with the ads by John McCain and socialite Paris Hilton. Questionable behavior and “stardom” status of society heiress Hilton and singer Spears was used by candidate McCain to negate the positive effects of the “star-status” given to opponent Obama. Hilton, by contrast, filled her video “…with age-based insults,” said Fox News on August 6th. In her video she refers to McCain as “the oldest celebrity in the world… [and] that wrinkly white haired guy.”
Hilton’s ad was to get “…even with John McCain,” Fox said; but McCain’s ad was designed to undermine the status of his opponent. According to Anne Davies of the Sydney Morning Herald on August 2nd, McCain made, “An attempt…to depict his rival Barack Obama as a shallow, publicity-seeking celebrity, little better than Paris Hilton….” Unfortunately for McCain, these attacks provoked mounting criticism and a redirection of the election theme.
McCain Backlash
- In Davies’ article she says that the ad “…has triggered a storm of criticism from commentators and outrage from an unusual quarter: Hilton's grandfather.”
- A St Petersburg Times editorial, modified on August 4th says, “The self-described ‘happy warrior’ in the 2000 presidential campaign has turned sour in 2008, and the candor and straight talk that once made him such an attractive candidate are rapidly disappearing.”
- Washington Post reporter Chris Cillizza reported Tuesday that one GOPer said, “Their increasing bitterness reflects a campaign that is more about some sort of therapeutic frustration…than any coherent strategy to elect McCain,”
- Ex-McCain strategist John Weaver told Marc Ambinder in The Atlantic that the ad was “childish” and “tomfoolery. John's been a celebrity ever since he was shot down," Weaver said.
- MSNBC reporter Domenico Montanaro reported on July 31st, “It is clear that some Republicans and ex-McCain aides weren’t too impressed….Today might be a day when John McCain ought to simply forget to read the news…The editorials that are blasting his new Britney-Paris ad and other attacks against Obama are piling up.”
Election Themes
Some have called the Presidential election of 2008; the past versus the future. Election Unspun producer Karen Miller reported former DC Representative and political analyst Walter Faunteroy said in February 2008, “...it's a movement…simple as that...This is between the past and the future….”
Others still have called it a race between the young and the old. Tucker Sutherland, editor of Senior Journal also said in a February article, “…a survey by the Pew Research Center found major concern among voters about a candidate being age 70 or older…. polling data exist…that strongly suggests that the Arizona senator's age could become a big issue for him in the general campaign.”
Neither of these cases was favorable to the republican candidate. In an attempt to redefine the race, McCain staffers have taken a chapter from Hillary Clinton’s campaign and identified age with experience. However, miscalculations may have reduced the ad’s power and returned the theme to the past versus the future. Alex Koppelman, of Salon.com wrote on July 31st, “Barack Obama's campaign has released an ad responding…This latest ad… The Low Road,” accuses McCain of "practicing the politics of the past… [and] allows the Obama campaign to neatly tie McCain to President Bush.”
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