McCain and the ‘Celeb’
By Jennifer J. Foster
Published: July 31, 2008
So, let’s say you’re John McCain. You’re a decorated war hero, a former POW, a U.S. senator with a record—albeit a sometimes-contentious one—on some of the most pressing issues of our time. You’ve managed to win the Republican nomination for president while remaining relatively attractive to independents and swing voters. Your opponent is the most liberal senator, in terms of voting records, in the U.S. Senate. He has trouble mobilizing middle-aged white guys—the “typical white person,“ one might say—in Ohio and Pennsylvania and Michigan.
Should be a cake walk in November, right?
Except that Barack Obama is that opponent.
Obama has dominated the cycle—not only for positive news, like that he’s the first African-American candidate to clinch a presidential nomination and he has what has functioned to this point as an all-consuming charisma—but also because he has a racially and religiously diverse background, which has led to more than a few questions—some of them voiced, most of them whispered—about how that background would really shape an Obama presidency.
Even the news about Obama is news in itself—like the massive media entourage that dutifully followed him to the Middle East and Europe, breathlessly covering his every move, swooning at the sight of more than 200,000 gathered to hear him speak in Berlin.
So if you’re McCain, what do you do? Complaints about the coverage, even if they’re well-founded, sound like sour grapes—and you’re still putting the focus on your opponent and allowing him to dictate your response.
Obama’s foreign trip was a whole lot of lemons for the McCain campaign. But it did provide a lot of raw material—a lot of pictures and video. So the McCain campaign decided to make some lemonade.
Enter ‘Celeb,‘ the newest ad from the McCain campaign. (See it here.) The idea behind the ad is one of the best political strategies out there: Find a way to use your opponent’s strength against him. In this case, McCain concedes Obama’s strength—the rock-star quality and the excitement his campaign is creating in the U.S. and around the world. But McCain draws a distinction between celebrity and the ability and preparedness to govern.
In other words, Paris Hilton and Britney Spears are hugely popular in the U.S. and around the world. But no one would argue that either celebrity is equipped to be president (at least, we hope no one would).
Surprisingly, the Obama camp fell into the trap, sniffing about McCain: “Oops, he did it again.” Candidates, if you’re going to be funny, be funny; if you’re going to be serious, don’t try to be just a little bit funny. Obama’s folks should have just brushed off the ad by saying something short and to the point, like, “We’re glad Sen. McCain is contributing to our earned media,” or something like that.
John Weaver, a former McCain adviser and confidant, called the ad “childish.
“For McCain to win in such troubled times, he needs to begin telling the American people how he intends to lead us. That McCain exists. He can inspire the country to greatness.
“There is legitimate mockery of a political campaign now, and it isn’t at Obama’s. For McCain’s sake, this tomfoolery needs to stop.”
Oh, calm down, Mr. Weaver. Watch out, or you might pass out from lack of oxygen up there, what with your nose all the way up in the stratosphere and all.
SIDEBAR: No wonder he’s a former adviser. END SIDEBAR
As for the ad itself, I didn’t think it was childish. It was a well-conceived idea, and it was basically funny. McCain’s folks could have made it better, though, by taking the idea further. I think they could have made their point about preparedness and suitability by keeping the ad light and comical – more like the first two paragraphs of Rick Davis’s follow-up press release – instead of turning it serious halfway through. Why not list the top 10 celebrities and include Obama, show stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and superimpose Obama’s name on one of them, show cheering crowds at concerts and compare those to the Berlin gathering? They could even stack up the celebrity magazines that have featured Obama on the cover – and they wouldn’t even have to make them up! The soundtrack could be Brad Paisley’s “Celebrity:”
‘Cause when you’re a celebrity
It’s adios reality
You can act just like a fool
People think you’re cool
Just ‘cause you’re on TV
I can throw a major fit
When my latte isn’t just how I like it
When they say I’ve gone insane
I’ll blame it on the fame
And the pressures that go with
Being a celebrity
Taking this tack, the point about suitability would make itself.
Of course, the McCain camp also missed the mark by placing this on television. This is a made-to-order Internet ad, primed to go viral – if it had just taken itself a little less seriously.
Unfortunately, that is typical of the McCain campaign: Poor execution dooming otherwise basically good ideas.
And that has nothing to do with Obama.
See also:
Carrie Budoff Brown from Politico reports on how the McCain campaign’s “narrative of Obama as a president-in-waiting … began reverberating beyond the inboxes of Washington operatives and journalists” over the last week. In probably the funniest line I’ve heard about Obama’s confidence, Brown notes that “Jon Stewart teased that the presumptive Democratic nominee traveled to Israel to visit his birthplace at Bethlehem’s Manger Square.”
Now that’s funny.
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