Dan

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August 4, 2008

How is Obama like Britney Spears and Paris Hilton? Here’s How

Susan Estrich is confused about the latest McCain campaign tactic. Ms. Estrich ran the 1988 Michael Dukakis campaign, so it’s a stunner that she would have a hard time understanding something, but no one can be the master of everything.

Let’s clear things up for her.

John McCain’s campaign has run an ad equating Barack Obama with Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. This has Ms. Estrich fit to be tied, as she explains in a special commentary for Rasmussen Reports:

What does Barack Obama have to do with Britney Spears and Paris Hilton?

Absolutely nothing, as far as I can tell. A mentally unstable party girl and an heiress/party girl? Did I miss the part where Obama's father was a hotel magnate, where he couldn't be trusted to take care of his children, where he literally partied till he dropped?

Yet that is the connection the McCain campaign is trying to make in its latest attack ad. Sen. McCain says he's "proud" of the ad. With all due respect (if any is left), what is there to be proud of? "I'm John McCain and I approved this ad." Why?

Allow me. This is not complicated. And don’t give in to the temptation to embrace the absurd Bill Press analysis that the ad is racist, because it plays to the stereotype of black men chasing white women. (Such a stereotype exists? Thanks for letting us know, Bill.)

What Obama has in common with Ms. Hilton and Ms. Spears is that he gets gobs of attention, publicity, interest and adulation without having done anything to deserve it. The ladies of the McCain ad are, as they say, famous for being famous.

Britney Spears, I guess, makes music of some sort. I’m not really sure. I’ve never heard any of it. What I do know is that she shaved her head, flashed her vagina while getting out of a limo, tongue-kissed Madonna at an award show and lost custody of her children for being an exceedingly flaky parent. These are the reasons Britney Spears gets attention.

But Ms. Spears is an overachiever compared with Ms. Hilton, whose claim to fame is that she starred in a grainy green sex tape on the Internet, and that she goes to a lot of parties. That’s it. And yet, when she makes a move, Entertainment Tonight is there to tell us about it.

Barack Obama, as far as I can tell, is different from Ms. Spears and Ms. Hilton in that he is a hard-working, intelligent person, a responsible parent and a good, faithful husband. This is all to his credit, but it is irrelevant to the point of McCain’s ad. The ad is about people being elevated to a level of prominence they have not earned.

Obama is being hailed worldwide as the savior of mankind. Rarely has the adulation a person receives been farther removed from any sort of track record to justify it. Obama has been a U.S. senator for less than four years. He has authored no important pieces of legislation. He chairs one subcommittee, which has never held a hearing.

Despite the plaudits afforded him as a practitioner of “post-partisan” politics, Obama has one of the most partisan, ideological voting records in the Senate.

Prior to his election to the U.S. Senate, he served in the Illinois State Senate, where he was known for frequently voting “present” on controversial bills. For those of you who are not familiar – perhaps because you usually focus on Britney Spears and Paris Hilton news – that means he was there but he didn’t dare take a position, lest anyone criticize him.

The storyline of this man’s candidacy should be his complete lack of experience or any track record of achievement whatsoever. The only noteworthy thing Obama has ever accomplished is to prevent Hillary Clinton from becoming president, and for that he deserves our thanks. But that doesn’t change the fact that an Obama presidency would be amateur hour at the Improv.

Instead, network anchors follow him around the world as if he is the second coming of Jesus Christ.

Let’s say what everyone knows is true. There are three reasons this is happening. 1. He is black. 2. He is a very good speaker. 3. He is a Democrat, which means most of the mainstream media are rooting for him to win.

That’s why he’s been granted mega-celebrity status he did not earn. The McCain ad speaks to Obama’s unmerited superstar status within the political media, comparing it to Hilton’s and Spears’s unmerited superstar status within the entertainment media.

Why doesn’t Susan Estrich understand that? Because she’s one of the people straining to see through the stars in her eyes.

© 2008 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

This is Column # DC194. Request permission to publish here.