Yep, quality stuff.

I just had a thought. I want a T-shirt that shows Obama's head and reads: "He's the one... even McCain says so."

Sorry, I type for a living and I still messed up.

Anonymous Liberal used to post at Greenwald’s old blog and is also very good on legal issues. I think McCain’s ad associating Obama with Paris and Britney served one purpose for him: a two second flash of those two guaranteed mega-publicity. The celebrity “accusation” slung at a politician trying to gin up votes during a campaign is ridiculous on its face. "Celebrity" is the engine of politics.

Forget words. It's time for phasers given the way the McCain people have been behaving. (Of course, just the stun setting.)

"Obama, Spock, and the New Star Trek Nation"
http://msa4.wordpress.com/

I read this piece this morning on "C&L" and thought it was brilliant. I hope someone forwards it to the campaign. I'm sure Obama could make the sentiment his own. It undercuts McCains entire premise. I would love to see the press reaction.

The new ad is effective, in that it takes a slap back at McCain's celebrity meme. In a kind of, "No I'm not, YOU are!" way. It's good that Obama is seen to be defending himself- unlike Kerry. But I sure hope that he follows it up on the stump with Anonymous Liberal's explanation that McCain and Republicans think the average vote is too busy to pay attention to the real issues and too stupid to tell the difference. Isn't this the exact thing we who pay attention complain about every campaign season- voters being treated as not very bright pre-teens? Even the Media snottily sneers about the childish quality of debate in this country, tho they're responsible for most of it. It would be a great thing if Obama managed to shame the Media into a discussion of the childishness of McCain's accusations against Obama, and about the issues that we should all be considering instead. McCain can only win if he succeeds in side tracking the Media from the real issues and policies of both candidates.

I have mixed feelings about this ad. On the one hand, it is truthful and calls McCain on his clear hypocrisy, while, at least to me, having a subtext that McCain wants the spotlight and is no doubt jealous that he can't attract 200,000 people in one place, or barely a hundredth of that number. (It doesn't come out and say that, but in painting him as an attention seeker, it can be inferred.)

Still, it's very tit-for-tat, and in that way not as subtle as most of Obama's retorts, which generally rise above the attack and make it look petty and foolish.

Still, it may play well with certain voter segments, and that may be why it was run. The more subtle responses may get missed or may not hit as hard with some people.

Overall, I figured out a long time ago that Obama wasn't necessarily going to do things the way I expected him to do them, or even the way I hoped he would do them in some cases. And I also figured out that he was the candidate I would support, and that I was going to let him run his own campaign (as if I had any real choice in the matter) - win or lose. So, they chose to release this ad, and let's hope it works.

And I, at least, hope the next one is back on message. Still, McCain is outright lying over and over again, and there's still work to do to counter those lies that underinformed voters will believe. Hopefully, the truth will out.

Hi Raider. Obama did just what you're suggesting this morning, Raider, in a campaign mail. For those who think "he's insulting you" is too strong, the campaign e-mail goes further, basically to arguing that McCain is attacking the average voter by deriding Obama as a celebrity with a coterie of mindless fans.