I hate to admit it (as it means an endorsement of something that Paris Hilton did), but this is pretty funny. If anything, it is brilliant PR for a PR-addicted person:
Interestingly (but not surprisingly) many in the Blogosphere don’t see this for what it is: a rather obvious attempt by Hilton to simply garner attention to herself (imagine that!), rather than some attempt at actual politics. James Joyner has a partial run-down of responses, many of which use the opportunity to make political digs at Obama (all’s fair in love and politics, but it strikes me as a stretch to see this faux ad as a surrogate for the Obama campaign). Another example is here.
One of the sillier responses, actually, is from the McCain camp itself, which tried to use the ad to get a dig in at Obama:
McCain’s spokesperson Tucker Bounds tells TMZ that on the subject of energy, Paris is deeper than Barack. He says, “Sounds like Paris is taking the ‘All of the Above’ energy approach that John McCain has advocated — both alternatives and drilling. Perhaps the reality is that Paris has a more substantive energy plan than Barack Obama.”
In my view, it would have been smarter to laugh it off, rather than try and give it some semi-legitimacy by using it as a launching point for an attack. Of course, I am sure that Obama supporters find all the “old guy” jokes to be hilarious as well, but I am not specifically aware of any comment from the campaign. Indeed, apart from TalkLeft, which really doesn’t have much to say on the subject, it appears that mostly right-leaning blogs are commenting on the “ad” (at least according to my quick perusal of Memeorandum). That will likely change over time, however.
The only personal political commentary on the matter that I will offer is this: shame on the McCain campaign for bringing this much attention to Paris Hilton! I am not sure what this says about their judgment…
One additional point, it is also striking that Hilton is able to engage in some policy-babble about energy policy that doesn’t sound all that different from the kinds of sound bite proposals that all politicians proffer. As such, it just underscores how easy that is to do.
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August 6th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Suppose Paris knows anything about the Cuban missile crisis?
I think what is enlightening about this exchange is how trite and damaging the negative PR tactics have been to political discourse in this country. When you’ve lowered the bar to the point that Paris can slap you around - and quite justifiably - then maybe it’s time to dump the Rove crowd and their tactics & engage on the issues.
August 6th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
@RandyB - Indeed.