The McCain campaign has just played an entire campaign's worth of identity politics in a single ad. At the beginning of this latest bit of respectful campaigning, Obama is compared to Paris Hilton and Brittany Spears:
Let's do a quick rundown of the identity politics at work in such a comparison:
Obama is a girly-man. The ad only compares Obama to female celebrities, which is a direct shot at Obama's "manliness."
Obama will sleep with your white daughters: Paris Hilton and Brittany Spears are known for their sexuality as much as anything else. That must go for Barack Obama, too. And the history of attacking African-Americans in association with white women is such a positive one.
Obama is too young: For a campaign that is hyper-sensitive to attacks on McCain's age, they certainly have no problem attacking Obama's age. Which is what comparing Obama to Spears and Hilton is.
Obama is a Hollywood liberal: This is also a run of the mill attack on Obama as a Hollywood, liberal elite, in line with decades of conservative backlash narratives.
This is really atrocious stuff, and trying to bring out all of the worst aspects of America in order to win an election. At this point, the McCain campaign is just hitting Obama with whatever it can think of, and seeing if Obama will respond. It works, too, as they get tons of free press out of it. Given that political attacks take on their own life, the best response for Obama is probably to start making attacks of his own.
