RNC Launches 'Obama Is A Celeb' Website

John McCain's "Celeb" ad, which he portrayed Barack Obama as an intellectually vacant pop star, made several members of the GOP recoil. Most notably, McCain's former campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, derided the spot as trivial and childish.

But Republicans believe they have a winning issue. And on Friday, the Republican National Committee showed no sign of slowing in its push to label Obama as vacuous celebrity.

The committee announced the creation of a new interactive Web site, www.WhoSaidItCelebrityEdition.com, in which users are presented a blind quote and tasked with choosing which celebrity (Obama and three others) said it.

The game does a decent job of furthering the Obama-is-just-another-celeb meme, primarily because the RNC cherry picks the shallowest, most nondescript quotes. For example: "I didn't expect it to come so quickly. It's been hard to keep up with. There's been articles in the papers that say I've got too big for my boots but people who know me say I'm just the same"? (For the record, soccer star David Beckham, not Barack Obama, is the author of that line). Or, "You have only a short period of time in your life to make your mark, and I'm there now." (George Clooney).

But one can easily imagine the Democratic alternative. It would probably look something like this:

Who said the following about the Iraq War: George Bush, Dick Cheney, John McCain, or Paul Wolfowitz? "There's no doubt in my mind that once these people are gone that we will be welcomed as liberators."

Comments

[Ramirez]

From 2005:

"I don't think I have a place in history yet. I got elected to the U.S. Senate. I haven't done anything yet."

[Jinxykb]

"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you
win." - Gandhi

[j0hnwi11iams]

This is about as far away from the issues as they could possibly hope to get. I have no respect for any of them. They are acting like high school drama queens.

[venicesurfer]

i got most of them right.

[watchTVgetSTUPID]

The Britney/Obama/Paris ad is clearly racist. It links Obama with sexually active young white women. The ad deliberately omits Nicole (the mixed race woman who routinely partied with Paris and Britney). Even McCain's mother was wondering why the ad did not include all 3.

The GOP attacked the Tennesse senate candidate in a similar racist fashion. They ran TV ads of a young white sexually active womn saying she wanted to party with Ford.

[Ramirez]

Why is that racist?

[cluelessinSD]

Makes White men think, that all Black men want their women.

[swkidder]

A suggestion: We should all overwhelm their website with a single message - "Yes, he's a celebrity. And that's because he's a superstar who will be our next President - get over it."

And let's see how they like sorting through all those messages telling them they're screwed in November?

[DaOne]

Who said "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you c u n t ."?

[republicans4obama]

There are very smart people behind this site/the mock facebook site, and the latest ads. If you take them all, the narrative becomes very clear. People like us who are supporters think they are silly. A moderate Republican, a conservative Democrat, or Independent in a battle ground state starts to ask themselves about Obama's record, starts to ponder his Berlin speech in front of 200,000 people who clapped the loudest when Obama mentioned our shortcomings. They are using humor to get their attention. As mentioned above the MSM are playing them all over the place. These would be voters are the people holding Obama back in the polls. These ads will starts to become more serious and less funny in order to drive this point home as the debates near. It is being pounced on by the talk radio machine already. Don't write this off as antics. If we were in the clear, Obama would be up by 15-20 points. The fact is we are tied. They are framing the "empty suit" narrative and Obama's team better fight back.
myspace.co­m/republic­ans4obama

[MemphisBuffalo]

Who said it BUSH or MCSAME> That is the counter.

[DRaymond]

This seems so counterproductive. They are trying to make Obama seem shallow, but by resorting to such a pointless tactic they come across as the shallow ones.

[J.J. Hunsecker]

People are finally paying attention to the McCain campaign. That in itself is a prodigious achievement.

[SaddieMcCall]

McCain is just plain mean. People are sick of negative campaigning - and now he is dragging non politicians into his political fight. This is just wrong on so many levels.

[DHFabian]

On thew "star treatment" that has the Republicans all a-twitter, have the forgotten about the endless adulation showered on Reagan? From the (mindless) mainstream press, one would have thought Reagan wasn't merely a star, but a deity!

[marcywrite]

I find it sadly ironic that McCain, who's accusing Obama of vacuous celebrity, wouldn't have gotten into the U.S. Naval Academy if his dad and grandfather hadn't been Navy admirals, who'd have gotten kicked out of that institution for going AWOL on an exam after a night on the town if not for the fact that his dad was still Navy brass, and who managed by just a few people to avoid graduating at the bottom of his class. And HE is calling the guy who earned merit scholarships to each college he attended, and was elected president of the Harvard Law Review -- all without support from any friend, family member or guardian angel -- a mere celebrity?! Rank hypocrisy.

Now that he's taking his cues from three former Karl Rove campaign toadies (hired a month ago, immediately after which his campaign u-turned into the mud), McCain is now playing the game the traditional GOP way: all dirt, all the time. What McCain and his ilk won't admit is that Obama attracts huge crowds, here and overseas, not because he's a "celebrity," but because he represents a clear, intentional and intelligent turning away from the politics of division and destruction and back toward an America that sits down together to solve its problems, and that engages nations around the world in doing the same. What audacity! What chutzpah! WHAT A GREAT IDEA.

[Russycle]

I thought this was one of those fake articles, like the one saying McCain blames Obama for the eclipse (priceless!). The page is actually kind of funny--who can't get a laugh out of arugula?--but it does take vapid and irrelevant to new heights, or lows.

I think Glenn Frye was serenading McCain: "Desperado, when will you come to your senses?"