The One

I guess John McCain’s campaign figures that their Brittney Spear/Paris Hilton ad polled well the other day because they released an “internet only” ad entitled “The One”;

It pokes holes in the inflated ego of The Barack. From Ben Smith;

The ad quotes Obama in both serious riffs telling a crowd “we are the ones we’ve been waiting for”; and in a sarcastic one, joking to an audience, “You will experience an epiphany and you will say to yourself, ‘I have to vote for Barack.'”

The ad then shows Obama expressing his hope that America will look back at the 2008 election as the beginning of the end of global warming. The ad then cuts to an image a Charlton Heston, as Moses, parting the Red Sea, before concluding:

“Barack Obama may be The One, but is he ready to lead?”

Of course, the New York Times and the Obama campaign didn’t see anything funny about it;

 Hari Sevugan, one of its spokesmen: “It’s downright sad that on a day when we learned that 51,000 Americans lost their jobs, a candidate for the presidency is spending all of his time and the powerful platform he has on these sorts of juvenile antics. Senator McCain can keep telling everyone how ‘proud’ he is of these political stunts which even his Republican friends and advisors have called ‘childish’, but Barack Obama will continue talking about his plan to jumpstart our economy by giving working families $1,000 of immediate relief.”

Whew, when the Obama campaign starts talking about rebates, who know someone hit a nerve. The LA Times has the McCain response;

On the campaign plane, McCain spokeswoman Nicolle Wallace defended the clip as just another harmless quip. “There is an important role for humor in political campaigns,” she told reporters. “I think all of us would slit our wrists if there wasn’t.”

She also said the spot had a serious purpose: To buck up any McCain backers who may have been dispirited watching Obama dominate the news with his overseas trip and rally. The hope is to “make sure they understand that Barack Obama, who stands in front of tens of thousands, is not anything to be intimidated by,” she said. “We’re proud we’re showcasing our candidate surrounded by workers.”

Aside from the Moses clip, the rest is in Barack’s own words, so where’s the smear? Where’s the attack? What’s to be upset about? It’s his ideas and his perception of himself that scares people away…not that superficial crap he complains about. The hit dog yelps.

Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, John McCain/Sarah Palin, Politics