The infamous "Celeb" ad is embarrassing and a poorly designed and executed concept. The implicit comparison between Barack Obama and two featured vacuous starlets like Britney Spears and Paris Hilton is unfair and puzzling, shows poor judgment and a lack of creativity, and reflects badly on the campaign. The substantive part of the ad, dealing with Obama's proposed tax hikes and his refusal to support domestic oil and gas exploration as a material, commercially viable alternative to expensive, unreliable foreign oil, doesn't really integrate with the concept of celebrity. In fact, the ad may be remembered more for the images crowds cheering for Obama.
There's nothing wrong with the fact that Obama draws large crowds. The fact that the McCain campaign is drawing attention to it implicitly points out that McCain is not pulling the same type of audiences and could be interpreted as a sign of jealousy or defensiveness. But there are legitimate ways to approach the issue: for example, one could excerpt some of the vacuous things he's saying; you could talk about what, of a meaningful nature, people are taking from the speech; you could question what he's doing given his popularity now that he has the crowd's ear, or what he himself is taking away from the fact that he's pulling large crowds.
There's a reason I coined the term "Pied Piper of Failed Liberalism" to describe Obama: where will tax hikes on individuals and businesses responsible for creating jobs lead us, 8 years of trade protectionism and closed foreign markets to American goods and services, 8 years of no scalable alternative to ever-more-expensive foreign oil, 8 years of ballooning domestic spending, 8 years of pandering to rogue regimes and abandoning our allies?
Or take the image of a false Moses, leading the American people aimlessly through the desert for 8 years of his Presidency, guided by little more than the direction the wind is blowing to ensure his reelection?
Back in February, Sean Hannity had an hilarious segment of a pro-Obama focus group where no one person could identify a single accomplishment he has done. With a little creativity, you could easily simulate something a Jay Leno "Jaywalking" type segment (i.e., Jay asks ordinary people about current events) where you ask people what Obama has done or where he stands on key issues, what they remember about his speech in terms of solutions vs. empty rhetoric (and play the "Jeopardy" jingle while they ponder...)
James Taranto, columnist of The Wall Street Journal, has this recurring bit in his "Best of the Web" column, where he runs classic American quotes, say, FDR's on fear, JFK's inaugural signature quote ("ask not..."), etc.--and then quotes some ludicrous comment, typically by a Democrat. Imagine Barack, at the end of one such ad, saying, "This is the moment that the world is waiting for...I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions." The delusional comment is so over the top that I think the effect would be immediate and devastating to the Obama campaign.
Or, for instance, you can take his pompous rhetoric like to the crowd in Germany where he discusses being a "citizen of the world"--and seize the opportunity to note that some Supreme Court justices have been citing European or other courts vs. deciding issues based on the strict interpretation of the U.S. Constitution: Who would you rather see choose the next Supreme Court justice?
McCain could actually pose a nice twist to Obama's alleged judgment, without benefit of the National Intelligence estimate, regarding the Iraq War. He could remind people that the long-term Democrat policies against domestic drilling, nuclear power plants and the like forced us to depend more on foreign energy suppliers to run our economy, which reinforces our need to protect safety and mobility of tanker fleet, etc.
Before proceeding on next types of ads, I would like to address the field day that the left is taking on McCain's so-called flip-flops on energy, taxes, and the like. I think part of the problem that McCain has on some of these deals with the populist rhetoric used, which implies McCain buys into the class warfare argument or line-in-the-sand conservationism, i.e., ANWR, even after the offshore drilling reversal.
McCain is never going to get the support of ecological extremists. What he needs to do is to position himself as a pragmatic or maverick conservationist, one whom will seriously consider use of energy-rich territory given a small production footprint which is minimally obtrusive on the surrounding ecosystem and a commitment to future-period restoration. A change in position is warranted due to recent improvements in technology and the need to balance ecological with economic needs. With that, I recommend McCain go all the way and reverse himself on ANWR, noting bipartisan support in Alaska for drilling and the fact that it will yield good American jobs.
As for his so-called flip-flops on taxes, McCain needs to do a better job explaining he voted against tax hikes in 1990 and 1993 and the 2001/2003 votes (against tax cuts which passed) were more concerned with the spending side of the equation and well-founded fears of a mounting budget deficit.
McCain should then take Obama task for his blatantly expedient vote/position reversals: his decision to forgo public financing (despite supporting ethics reform), death penalty and gun rights (having been a law professor), the muddled reversals on Israel and Palestinians: Visually, you could accomplish this by going back and forth in a book--and then, at the end of the spot, pose the question as to whether the Obama on the ballot in November will be the same one after the election, not having to face reelection for 4 years?
McCain could run a number of Obama's liberal tax and spending promises--hammer home: tax, spend, tax, spend....--and then noting the numbers don't add up, ask the viewer who do you think he'll tax next... There are so many ways to play this with imagery: say, a magic show or the infamous "man-behind-the-curtain" of the Wizard of Oz.
Finally, a spot could feature something like a job application where you juxtapose McCain and Obama's qualifications and record (and in McCain's case, voluminous references), and then ask America who they would hire based on what's in front of them....
