You know, I thought it had a familiar smell. However I agree with Oliver. Ain’t no “there” there, either.

Apparently the Hilton’s had already doled out $4600 to the McCain campaign before this commercial hit the air.

Nothing like biting the hand that feeds you…

John McCain’s campaign is just trolling the pond for anything at this point. I hope his negative attacks continue because I believe it just strengthens Barck Obama’s position.

McCain started going heavy negative in his ads a couple of weeks ago, and he’s lost a percentage point or two in the polls…coincidence?

Exactly. ‘He’s an empty suit, like these two empty skirts.’ Even had they wanted to use a useless black celebrity, they couldn’t have found a media walking joke on the level of Britney and Paris.

I repeat, imagine a world where these ads talked about, you know, government.

It’s not about race, it’s about trying to say that with Obama there’s no “there” there.

“We just got off a conference call with Camp McCain, defending their new ad comparing Barack Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears.

“They said they thought the ad was legitimate because Obama is a big celebrity (which happens to be what John McCain was, too, when he came home from Vietnam and started to build his political career), and Britney and Paris were Number 2 and 3.

“The problem: Anyone with even a vague sense of pop culture knows that Britney and Paris are yesterday’s news. Here’s a link to Forbes’ Celebrity 100. Paris and Britney don’t even make the list any more.

“Instead, the top 10, in order: Oprah Winfrey, Tiger Woods, Angelina Jolie, Beyonce Knowles, David Beckham, Johnny Depp, Jay-Z, The Police, JK Rowling, Brad Pitt.

“So, they didn’t pick other big celebrities, who were either men, or black, or married.

“What they picked was two sexually available white women.

“But it must have been a coincidence, because we know John McCain wants to run an elevated campaign focusing on the serious issues that America faces.”

My own view is that the ad was not just about race but it was, in part, about race.

I worry that calling it out will backfire as the Boy Who Cried Wolf.

And worse, I think it cheapens what has happened to real victims of racism and sexism and anti-semitism and any other ism. People getting beaten up and maimed and murdered and lynched are very much not a politician being compared to some dumb celebrities.

And that’s actually my real beef with this. I don’t mind bring guns to a knife fight, but I consider valid accusations of bigotry of any sort basically a reason to go to drop a person off a cliff. I take them very seriously which is why I dislike seeing it trotted out without a very solid case. Right now, I am not seeing racism, I see a group of Democratic political operatives playing republican games and ignoring the collateral.

Much more importantly, what happened to Seal’s head? Is it possible my head would look like that if I shaved it? If I shaved it, and made my head look like that, could I get Klum’s sister?

I think the McCain team was going for a Dowd shot–comparing Obama to vapid, preening, so-yesterday, girlie-girls.

They missed, though. What they succeeded in doing is reminding us that people actually want to hear what McCain’s opponent has to say.