McCain as Celebrity

On a day when John Mccain releases yet another childish ad deriding Obama's oft-mentioned celebrity, TPM's Greg Sargent notes the following:

Andrew Sullivan makes a good point. For the 'celebrity' in the campaign, how many sitcoms has Barack Obama done guest spots on? How many movies has he done cameos in? How many times has he hosted Saturday Night Live. As John McCain's IMDB bio shows, he's done a lot. 24, Wedding Crashers, The Tony Danza show, numerous appearances on Saturday Night Live. It's another example of the curve that John McCain gets graded on. Of these two, there's no question who the more preening candidate or the bigger 'celebrity' is.

Late Update: Jake Tapper has more.

This is the fodder of a recent op-ed from Maureen Dowd of the New York Times. I'm very often not in agreement with her, but here Dowd is spot on as she dissects McCain's flight from honor. Dowd covers not only McCain's jealousy towards Obama, but also that of Jesse Jackson, Bill Clinton, and even John Edwards. It is a short read and very much worth your time. I also learned something about Obama's days at Harvard, which was icing on the cake.

McCain could dismiss W. as a lightweight, but he knows Obama’s smart. Obama wrote his own books, while McCain’s were written by Salter. McCain knows he’s the affirmative action scion of admirals who might not have gotten through Annapolis without being a legacy. Obama didn’t even tell Harvard Law School that he was black on his application.

6 August 2008