Take a look at this. In late June, a month before the latest fracas over who is playing the "race card" in this campaign, the McCain campaign released a television spot, in what was perhaps a test run of the current ad campaign to smear Obama as a vacuous celebrity along the lines of Brittany Spears and Paris Hilton, and a presumptuous, self-appointed messianic figure. It was called "Seal" -- based on the Obama campaign's use of the Presidential Seal in its own podium graphics -- and it contained a very interesting image, about half-way through:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDTJDv4hevU&feature=related

So here we have the GOP using images of Obama on a $100 bill in June to ridicule and attack him, and plant the seeds of the what has emerged as the central theme of the McCain campaign -- dissing Obama nonstop, and implying that his popularity (and everything else about him) is inauthentic and self-invented. And then when Obama takesa shot at this line of attack a month later, the McCain campaign and the GOP not only cry "Race Card!!!", they do it non-stop, 24/7, as if to say that they now have the right to play the race card themselves because, in this narrative, Obama started it.

Now I have seen craven attacks, but this one is a real insult to the intelligence. Are we supposed to believe that the McCain campaign is above the right wing attack machine's "Barack Hussein Obama" rhetoric, and its "Obama is secretly a Muslim who hates America" rhetoric? Please give us an empirical basis to believe that. Because McCain says he is above it? The same man who said he would run a positive campaign of issues, that would raise America, but who now says he is "proud" of the Brittany/Paris ad?? The same man who says he will never exploit the troops for political putrposes, but then runs ads falsely attacking Obama for snubbing the troops? Do they really think the public is that stupid? The answer of course is "yes" -- McCain's campaign is run by the same people who have been the architects of the past several presidential campaigns, and if there is one thing that is absolutely clear about that school of political consultants, it's that they believe in (and depend upon) stupidity and ignorance to get their "point" across. These ads are an insult to the intelligence, and so is the accusation that Obama is playing the race card in response to them.

So where is the so-called Mainstream Media on this? This spot was released almost a month before the GOP cried "Race Card!!" over Obama's sarcastic statement that he would be attacked because, among other things, he doesn't look like those other Presidents on the dollar bill. But not one major cable news network or television news network has picked up on this sequencing as far as I can tell. The McCain campaign has accused Obama of injecting race into the campaign. But over a month earlier, the McCain campaign did exactly what Obama was describing -- they attacked him by showing images of how funny he looks on a $100 bill. Is the story line about the race card just too juicy to let silly little facts get in the way?

Now "Seal" was not an overt racial attack. The core purpose of the ad is to ridicule Obama based on the notion that he has delusions of grandeur, that he is trying to rise above his station. Of course, anybody running for President is, by definition, arrogant and presumptuous -- after all, every presidential candidate thinks that he or she is qualified to be the leader of the most powerful country in the world. McCain, who has been at this for 10 years, is hardly an exception -- indeed, one need only look at his self-image as reflected in recent GOP ads (i.e., a glowing god-like figure looking over us from the distance), and he repeated references to his own "courage" in supporting the surge, to understand that narcissism goes with the territory (even for those the media has annointed to be "humble" or different). Ronald Reagan was a celebrity before he went into politics -- his career in politics would not have been possible but for his celebrity as a movie actor. Even McCain rode his celebrity as a POW to political office. By contrast, Obama has achieved celebrity after he ran for political office. His celebrity is based on how people are reacting to him as a politician, a leader and now a national and international figure who is admired for his accomplishments, intellect, and his unbelievable ability to inpire people to be and do better.

So one candidate is completely self-made, born into a family of modest means, orphaned as a child, who got into Harvard law school, and rose to the top of his class academically (becoming president of the Harcard Law Review, which is no small feat), who eschewed big Wall Street law firms and prestigious clerkships to practice civil rights law in a working class community, and has achieved every bit of celebrity he now has entirely on his own merit. And yet he is painted as the elitist, the presumptuous and vacuous celebrity who will say and do anything to be elected.

The other candidate is the son and grandson of admirals, who was at the bottom of his class and spent his years at the Naval Academy drinking and screwing around, who probably would have been expelled but for this father's rank, who had an indistinguished military record (until being shot down), who committd adultery and dumped his first wife to marry into a rich and powerful Arizona family, and who used his celebrity and family status to gain political office. But he is not painted as an elitist, even though his life story is a classic account of an elitist.

Now, I have no doubt that McCain's experience as a POW shows that, underneath the surface of an irresponsible underachiever, was a man of great personal character. It is why he is a credible candidate for President, and the best of the GOP candidates in this year (or most other years). But Obama is also somebody who has a record of profound personal accomplishments, whose celebrity is the result of, not the driving force behind, his political career. So this is truly a campaign based on insulting Obama and what he has accomplished. It depends on the voter to be ignorant of what Obama has done relative to what McCain has done. It has nothing to do with where they stand on the issues, it has nothing to do with the incredible challenges the next President will face. No, this is entirely about insulting somebody and planting in the minds of an inattentive (or intellectually impaired) public this notion that Obama is a phony, an empty suit who sounds nice, but has nothing going on under the surface (and that paints his supporters as vacuous cult worshippers).

No, McCain's campaign is now a campaign that is officially based upon insulting our intelligence. They are playing the "Insult the Intelligence" card -- proudly, I might add -- and the mainstream media is not only letting them do it, they are facilitating it by running the ads over and over, and not calling them on the falsehoods, which are out there to be reported. And there is only one antidote to that type of attack. We in the blogosphere need to get the facts out there if the mainstream media won't do it. Call them on it. Obama needs to focus on letting voters know what he is going to do to deal with the great challenges that face us after the Bush presidency ends. It is our responsibility to carry the heavy water in responding to these insulting attacks.