Susuto

McCain’s baseless negative ads reinforce one obvious fact: Anyone who still respects John McCain as a credible man of character simply isn’t paying attention.

I’m pretty comfortable, at this point, describing John McCain as the single most ridiculous major party presidential nominee of the modern political era.

Let’s look at his Spears - Hilton celebrity ad in a little more detail. On coastal drilling, the McCain campaign has crossed the pathetic line and keeps on running. The ad makes it sound like coastal drilling will help consumers. It won’t. McCain has personally conceded that the effects of coastal drilling would be “mainly psychological.”

On raising taxes on electricity, the McCain campaign is pointing to Obama’s support for a cap-and-trade policy. That’s odd — hasn’t McCain said he supports a cap-and-trade policy, too? Does that mean McCain wants to “raise taxes on electricity”?

But the unfortunate reality is — fact-checking mind-numbingly stupid ads like this one is largely beside the point. Of course the ad is ridiculous. Of course it’s an example of cowardice from a campaign too afraid to engage in a substantive debate. Of course the McCain campaign is lying.
This ad isn’t about facts and reality; it’s about an emotional response. It’s about characterizing Obama as arrogant (read: “uppity”), and foreign.

But does this emotional punch work?

Most conservatives I know think McCain is swinging entirely in the wrong direction. That by giving Steve Schmidt and Rick Davis and the lobbyists free hand, that he’s allowing the inmates to run the asylum.

And they’re right. Even beyond the numb-nutted concept behind this ad, look at all the things that are tactically wrong with it. First, it just reinforces Obama’s brand as one with worldwide appeal. Second, it’s McCain’s FOURTH ad that announces that Obama supports a sensible stance against offshore drilling - which isn’t popular in states McCain needs to win, like Florida, and which McCain himself even admits would only have a “psychological” impact on the economy.

Third, you don’t even know it’s a McCain ad until he shows up, smarmy looking off in the distance like the senile jerk he is — approving it at the end!

And let’s get a count on how many McCain ideas and policies this ad advances! Uhm…zero.

Actually, this might be the most honest feature of this advertisement!

I have no idea how voters will respond to stupidity like this ad. Maybe they’ll find it compelling. Who knows.

But it seems to me the ad tells us very little about Obama, and a whole lot about the pathetic mean old desperate shell of a man McCain has become.