Argue with John McCain all you want about off-shore oil drilling and time tables for troop redeployment, but the Republican candidate is indisputably correct about one issue: Barack Obama really is "the biggest celebrity in the world." McCain’s new attack ad (you know, the one casting Britney Spears and Paris Hilton as this election’s Willie Horton) is right on target when it points out that Obama looks as much like a pop icon as the presumptive Democratic nominee. Where McCain goes wrong, though, is mistaking this for a bad thing. Obama’s movie star style of campaigning may well be what wins him the White House this November.
Just look at the "optics" from Obama’s trip overseas last month. There he is hovering over Iraq in a helicopter, flashing a Top Gun grin. There he is on a basketball court in Kuwait sinking a three-pointer with the aplomb of a wonkier Michael Jordan. And there he is in Berlin, rocking a crowd of 200,000 in Tiergarten Park, with a speech almost as political as one of Bono’s. Rock star. Matinee idol. Sports hero. At times Obama has even resembled a fashion model — striding out of a jet in designer suit and sunglasses, a duffle slung effortlessly over one shoulder. Is this a campaign stop or a Dolce & Gabbana ad?
JFK may have been the first American President to use television tohis political advantage, Ronald Reagan may have been the first tomaster the medium, but Obama is the first candidate to turn hiscampaign into a multimedia marketing extravaganza akin to the launch ofa blockbuster film. He’s made himself more than a politician; he’s abrand, complete with logo (that red, white and blue "sunrise" symbol).
McCain complains that his opponent is too much of a glamour puss tobe President — usually while doing a badly lit photo op in the dairyaisle of a Midwestern supermarket. But Obama is merely appropriatingthe pop cultural syntax of our time, speaking to voters in the visuallanguage of our celebrity-crazed, media-saturated, consumer-driven age.Sure, it can be derided as shallow and trivial, but this is how youinfiltrate people’s head space in the 21st Century. It’s one of thereasons Obama is reaching voters who never paid much attention topolitics before (like all those kids snapping up Obama "superhero"T-shirts at Comic-Con last week). These days, when more people read People than Newsweek,when some of our best friends are celebrities — when we know more aboutBrad and Angelina’s kids than our neighbor’s and have a more intimaterelationship with Oprah than with our doctors — star power isn’t such aterrible thing to have if you happen to be running for President of theUnited States.
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The danger, however, for Obama is for his candidacy to be subsumed into the crippling polarization of the country that, in pop cultural terms, is expressed in the Coasts vs. Heartland dichotomy, in which stereotyping and deliberate ignorance are in gross evidence on both sides. This would be a shame, because Obama should be a transcendent leader; and if *that* is what shone through in his “world tour”, then that should “play” everywhere. Playing divide-up-the-states, as has been popularized by cable news of both sides since 2000, is a zero-sum game. Obama should inspire everywhere. If he doesn’t, then perhaps he does not deserve the country–or vice versa.
Talking about politics in an entertainment forum is never a good idea.
So how does John McCain stack up against a guy who was editor of the Harvard Law Review, who got elected U.S. Senator from Illinois, who is leading in the race for president and who, to top it off, accepted a basketball challenge in Kuwait to sink a 3-pointer on first try in a military gym packed with cheering U.S. soldiers? How does John McCain win against such as wunderkind as Obama? Maybe bash Obama with attack ads? Say he’s an empty-headed celeb? Nah, won’t work. I truly wonder how McCain must feel every time he sees Obama on TV, sees that clip where Obama pivots to make that 3-pointer –WHOOSH. Sterling Greenwood, Aspen Free Press
Some poor blacks are upset with Barrack as demonstrated on the campaign trail today. For the REAL reson behind the disruption, look at this YouTube video:
Good points, but overall McCain’s ‘Obama is just a celebrity’ angle is an effective move. Connecting Obama to celebs conjure up not only images of glamor, but also the vapid narcissism celeb watchers know all too well. Voyeurism has its appeal in modern sociey, but style over substance isn’t usually acceptable when it comes to handling the nation’s affairs.
http://nyherald.com/obama-celebrity-paris-britney-mccain/552.html
Barack Obama is using celebrity power to communicate his message of change in America’s politics. This combines substance with star power, which is why Obama is attracting such a large base of support in the 2008 presidential election.
http://www.barack-obama-president.com
RE:
Obama: Celebrity in Chief
Aug 1, 2008, 08:23 PM | by Benjamin Svetkey
Categories: Politics as Entertainment
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Thank you for wecloming me
And allow me to congratulate you for your present article
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WESTERN UNIVERSALISM
“Color cannot be understood except in relation to the person who perceives it,” physicist Pierre Demers wrote in the Foreword to this book entitled “Bill A Ri And There Was Light ! in http://www.contact-canadahaiti.ca. He clearly confirms the relevance of this essay. First of all, in fact, we thought it would be useful to consider the civilizational (politico-religious) attitude of the West toward the Blacks, before pointing out the deficiencies of present-day science, which is predominantly Western, in its perception of the Black Universe…
Lucien BONNET
Author of the Book entitled
“Bill A Ri And There Was Light !” in
http://www.contact-canadahaiti.ca
I was all for him before the big overseas tour and now I am not so sure. There are so many pressing issues right here. What the French and Germans think of us is not one of them.
heck, i want to vote for him and i’m canadian!
All presidents are celebrities. The idea that you wouldn’t embrace this aspect of the job is idiotic and childish.
Why discuss this America? Oh thats right, the people don’t set the discourse.
Who cares if he’s cool — it’s pretty much a fact he’s smarter than McCain and doesn’t see stupid oil drilling as the solution to America’s energy problems.
They never mention how much more oil there is to be drilled — and the fact that it’s going to cost much more to get it.
Wow, yes we have more pressing issues here in the USA, but the fact that he went overseas for a week is not going to hurt the US….. as a Army VET I think it was great for a potential President/Commander-in-Chief to visit the areas that he did and try to show that all these countries can work together to achieve GLOBAL ISSUES **TOGETHER**…. wake up, the US is not the only country going through something, many coutries are going through things as well and if we can help each other thats what its all about.
After 8 years of having an empty suit in office, I can’t believe we are going to elect Obama and continue the tradition. It sickens me.
I think it’s an effective ad and the movement to McCain in the polls over the last few days bears that out. It is an effective ad because it takes Obama’s strenghth and uses it against him.
Much has been said about this ad (Jon Stewart gave the most pointed argument, while over at TIME’s Tuned In it has been dissected even further) but the funniest thing to me about the ad occurs at the very end. It is strange (and hilarious) to me that McCain looks exactly like Ian McDiarmid’s Chancellor Palpatine in the closing shot. Why he would willingly choose to look like the evil Emperor is beyond me.
Oh please – this from the party that put Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ronald Reagan in office. Tell them to stop whining about how popular their opponent is.
wow, the only good points about Obama, after being editor of the Harvard Law Review, are that he is a senator and sunk a three pointer? Sounds “presidential” to me. Poor John McCain probably can’t sink a three pointer because he was a PRISONER OF WAR. I agree. Politics on EW? Bad idea.
What a hypocritical ad from John McCain, especially when he’s appeared on Access Hollywood, his wife chatted it up with Us Weekly, and his daughter hangs out with the likes of Heidi Montag. Pot, stop talking about the kettle.
The “style over substance” issue in this campaign is fairly relevant, given that it’s been pretty effective in the past. But I’m with Steven – the Obama-Hollywood linkage could be a decent strategy for McCain because people do have a love/hate relationship with celebrities. If you don’t believe me, look at the tabloid covers next time you’re in the supermarket. And I’d hope that people wouldn’t vote for Obama just because a) the Europeans are drooling over him or b) he can shoot a three-pointer. Because that would just be sad.
Hollywood can have him. He’s just too big for one little White House….no way he could contain all that charm and glamour in that little bit of space. Will Smith is waiting for you, Obama…don’t keep him waiting.
Win the election? It’s too soon to tell.
Time will only tell if middle america, the Washington politicians, and the white people of the land will elect what they mutter under their breath and behind closed doors – yes, ladies and gentleman, “a n****r.”
Riding the celebrity zeitgeist might be a great way to win the presidency, but it has nothing to do with governing. Obama’s policies (which can only be discerned by his voting record, since he only seems to advocate “change”, as if that in itself is magical) are socialist business as usual and will send us backward as those policies always do. There is nothing new about Obama besides his skin color. It’s politics as usual.
I think it’s funny that McCain used Paris Hilton to make a negative attack add against Obama when her family has been giving donations to McCain’s compaign. I guess he just lost not only money but votes. Also as long as his daughter is hanging around Heidi, he can’t talk at all!
I use to at least respect McCain, even if I don’t agree with him on many topics. That has pretty much gone out the window now. He’s been so negative and quite frankly, hypocritical. Perhaps Obama does have celebrity appeal, but I’ll be voting for him because of the issues our nation faces & because for the first time in a while, a political candidate has given me a bit of hope.
McCain is afraid. He mocks what he does not understand–this whole ‘interweb’ thing. The distribution of pop culture is where people line up for information. It seems trivial but it’s taken the place of state fairs and traveling carnivals for politicians.
But it’s more than the distribution of the message that makes the difference for Obama. His language is wonderful. (Sometimes it even makes me cry.)
I agree w/the others that Obama should use his charm and his celebrityness to his advantage. Just keep smiling that’s what people want to see, because a smiley person is a happy person and hopeful….whereas it’s hard for McCain to even give a semblance of a smile. People, just remember, the last “celebrity” president we had in office was Bill Clinton and the company wasn’t as bad off as it is today.
The best defense against the Schmidt/ Rove/ McCain offensive. Focus on the people behind the negative strategy, the new McCain campaign. Use their strength (the negative campaign) against them, repeatedly.
1. The takeover is now complete. The McCain campaign is now run by the Schmidt/ Rove/ Cheney/ Neocon/ Haliburton/ Swiftboat/ Smear apparatus. The same team that gave us Bush, the same dirty politics, the same distractions, the same disaster awaiting the country and economy, is now in controlling the McCain campaign.
2. They know how to win Presidential campaigns. And when let loose in the Whitehouse in just 8 short years – they will also run the economy into the ground, lose 50,000 jobs per month to China and India, send billions a month in US wealth to middle east oil despots who stoke terrorism, lose prime US assets to our enemies, lead us into record national debt, the subprime crisis, Enron and more.
3. They must think we are stupid. Will we vote against Rove, Cheney and the
I’m patiently waiting for the “Obama’s got Cooties: Vote For McCain” commercial.
I’m fine with the flash being used to get him in the White House, just as long as when he’s actually there, he sets aside the flash and gets to work on the very real problems in our country right now.
obama
I believe a majority of you voting for Obama are voting for him because he’s black. What a reason to vote for someone. Just say it already, you want Obama because you think its a slap in the face of whites. The fact is blacks are the true racist.