Is Barack Obama a Celebutante?

By Anastacia Mott Austin

Dang…I think John McCain just lost Paris Hilton’s vote.

She’s peeved that his campaign used her image in an ad designed to attack Barack Obama. "Miss Hilton was not asked, nor did she give permission for the use of her likeness in the ad and has no further comment," said the vapid celebutante through representatives.

Maybe the McCain campaign should do a little more background research before choosing who to denigrate in an ad, because Ms. Hilton’s parents and grandfather have donated thousands of dollars to the McCain camp.

Then again, maybe the Hiltons aren’t offended that Paris is being called a celebrity, and that she’s being compared to a candidate for President. It could have been, and has been, much worse for the young lady.

But the ad, along with another released a day later, has had a definite effect in the media. The short ads have been run and re-run hundreds of times and are being discussed ad nauseam by the usual talking heads.

So have they been successful?

The first ad briefly shows footage of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, followed by a shot of Obama with a voiceover saying, "He’s the biggest celebrity in the world, but is he ready to lead?"

The second one, called "The Chosen One," mocks Obama’s mass popularity and shows him making inspiring speeches to cheering throngs of people. The ad says "He may be ‘The One,’ but is he ready to lead?"

The ads are apparently in reaction to the overwhelming press coverage Obama has received over the last several weeks as he traveled the world to meet with foreign leaders, make speeches to enormous crowds, and indulge in all kinds of photo ops.

Obama has recently appeared on the cover of "US" magazine, "People," and "Rolling Stone," among many others, far exceeding press coverage for McCain in recent weeks.

Some have estimated that Obama’s free press coverage has surpassed McCain’s by a margin of nearly 10-to-1.

So maybe it’s only fair that McCain felt he had to attack that very fact. And while some have labeled the ads as being beneath McCain, who has supposedly been running his campaign on the themes of honor and integrity, or just "silly," the Obama campaign has pretty much just said "thank you."

Obama’s campaign manager David Plouffe told reporters that more than 100,000 donors, over than a third of them giving money for the first time, donated to the Obama campaign immediately after the ads aired.

Other representatives of Obama have said to reporters that there are worse things that could be said about one than the opposing candidate calling you "the chosen one" and showing footage of hundreds of thousands of screaming crowds in support. Others are not too concerned that the logic of "don’t vote for him, he’s too popular" will hold much water with voters.

One citizen’s response to the McCain ad about "The One" wrote, "I saw the ad…and it kind of made me want to vote for Obama."

Oh, and note to McCain: Hollywood insiders say that the Arizona senator is so out of touch that he didn’t even get the language right: according to the lingo of Tinseltown, Obama is not a celebrity, he’s a rock star. Duh.