8.06.2008

The Finest Political Ad Ever

We must begin with one of the worst ads of this year. I have to say one of the worst, because McCain has had a string of outright lies recently, most egregiously claiming that Obama did not support US troops, lying that Obama had not visited injured troops because he couldn't bring cameras, when in fact Obama didn't visit them because he didn't want them to use them for political gain. (We now know that, if Obama had visited the troops in Germany, McCain was prepared to launch an ad stating that Obama had used them for political gain.) That commercial claimed that Obama instead went to the gym, and it uses footage of Obama playing basketball with US troops, but conveniently blurs out the troops themselves- a rare hat trick of taking advantage of US troops and Obama at the same time.

One of the other worst ads of the year is one suggesting that Obama isn't ready to lead because he is too popular. I've previously dealt with the blatant racism in this ad, but now want to focus on the use of Paris Hilton and Brittany Spears. The McCain campaign wants to pretend that there is no racist element to combining two young beautiful white women with a black man- as if they are completely ignorant of the history of the South and African-Americans.

It is of course rather ridiculous to suggest that, if someone is popular, we shouldn't elect them. McCain must think you become President by being selected by an elite cabal, rather than a popular vote. He must think that people all over the world are so stupid that they like someone for no reason, and not because they think he would make a good leader. Obama has responded with his own remarks. But I believe Paris Hilton has come up with by far, the finest response, and the finest ad of this political season.
See more Paris Hilton videos at Funny or Die

3 comments:

Aimee said...

hee hee - that is the funniest thing ever! She actually makes some sense and sounds like she knows what she's talking about. Wow. Did you see McCain's response to the ad though? They think Paris agrees with their energy policy and perhaps she would be a better leader than Obama. Geesh. I can't wait till all this bashing is over with!

Aimee said...

Actually, here is the quote:

"It sounds like Paris Hilton supports John McCain’s ‘all of the above’ approach to America’s energy crisis - -including both alternatives and drilling. In reality, Paris Hilton may have a more substantive energy policy than Barack Obama,” spokesman Tucker Bounds said.

Jed Carosaari said...

Yeah, I saw it. It goes to what Obama said earlier- they seem to take great delight in being ignorant. It's quite clear that she is calling for a merging of both plans, and not an endorsement of McCain. Yet he doesn't even have the honour to apologize to her.

I am sad that neither candidate, nor the media, nor, it seems, the American public at present, are talking about the real issues around oil drilling, and this with Hurricane Season in full swing! We have such short memories. The real issue is global warming, and the destruction of the environment. I care not at all about "energy independence", which in truth is another way of saying that we are not integrated into the world, and we are not allowing other countries' peoples to make money. Oil drilling, even in non-environmentally sensitive areas, will lead to further destruction of the environment, because it brings up oil, that we burn in our cars. Only this doesn't just effect bald eagles (as if even that were limited to the eagle). It effects the entire planet, leading to billions of dollars in damage, and 1000s of lives lost. We'd think we'd get it by now.