Celebrity Skin

Pardon me if you've seen this point elsewhere, but in what sense is John McCain not a celebrity? I've seen him on the covers of magazines, on television, in newspapers, doing guest appearances on SNL, etc.:

Could you possibly be a major party presidential nominee and not be a celebrity? But in particular, McCain actually stands out among politicians as being someone who was a famous celebrity first and then parlayed his fame into a political career, rather than merely being someone who's well-known for being an important politician.

Comments

Yeah it's a classic example of hypocrisy.

Straight talk!

I'm having deja vu all over again. Reminds me of the Hillary campaign.

Posted by Peter K. | July 31, 2008 3:16 PM

Does no one at all, in the entire media, recognize that Ronald Reagan was a HOLLYWOOD MOVIE ACTOR, who parlayed that fame into the presidency.

Posted by Eli | July 31, 2008 3:25 PM

Well, the guy with eleven mansions and two private planes is telling me his opponent is an elitist.

So: yeah. It plays in American politics because it's stupid. Why? Because it's a kind of escapism. Talking about the issues would be too fucking scary, so we take a tedious trip through Ironyville hashing out a bunch of phony issues that don't have thing one to do with the price of tea in China.
.

Posted by Grand Moff Texan | July 31, 2008 3:25 PM

I'd say that McCain's celebrity peaked back around 2000. Whether he's changed or he's just killed himself with more exposure, who knows, but I don't see any real segment of the population who is enthusiastic about him.

Posted by LFC | July 31, 2008 3:26 PM

Well, the guy with eleven mansions and two private planes is telling me his opponent is an elitist.

Oh, that's SOOOO unfair! At least one of those homes is a condo.

Posted by LFC | July 31, 2008 3:28 PM

McCain is, in a sense, a purer celebrity than McCain, in that he is well-known solely for being well-known: people don't actually *like* him. He's like one of those Holywood Squares people who were only known for being on the Hollywood Squares, except for him it's the Daily Show or SNL. Obama is all that and more in terms of visibility, except that most people actually like him and agree with him on important issues.

Posted by Rich | July 31, 2008 3:29 PM

Well, the guy with eleven mansions and two private planes is telling me his opponent is an elitist.

Oh, that's SOOOO unfair! At least one of those homes is a condo.

Posted by LFC | July 31, 2008 3:28 PM

It's doubleplusunfair. It's not like McCain himself actually paid for those things. Hell, he probably didn't even want them at all, some FEMALE probably forced them on him.

Posted by John | July 31, 2008 3:32 PM

Eli is correct about the most prominent recent example of this, but of course the famous military men like Washington, Jackson, Harrison, Taylor, Grant, and Ike would also qualify.

However, I do think it is particularly ironic that the current patron saint of the GOP was actually a bonafide entertainment celebrity (B-list to be sure, but still).

Posted by DTM | July 31, 2008 3:38 PM

Matt, you are smarter than this, and as you recognize, just about every dolt in the media (pro-Obama and some pro-McCain) is making this mistake.

I don't think the celebrity point will get McCain very far, but his point is pretty clearly that Obama's chief strength is his very celebrity, and that celebrity is cheap currency in our times. It is manifestly not that celebrity=evil. It is that, once you get past the celebrity, Obama is thin soup. Some will find this appealing, others who are impressed with Obama's resume (which is very impressive in its own way, though perhaps not for a President in particular) will not. But that's the ground on which to argue with the spot.

The ad may be dumb (I think, based on what people at work seem to be saying about it, that it's mildly effective), but it is not making the point this post replies to, just as it is not a racist dog whistle. Amazingly, the Gawker post on this today (I think we'd all agree Gawker is not pro-McCain) gets these points.

Is the obtuse "but McCain's a celebrity too!" reply willful or just sloppy?

Posted by Bill | July 31, 2008 3:43 PM

This is a funny skit that McCain delivered well. What happened to the guy? Now he looks awkward and in pain whenever he speaks publicly.

Posted by Led | July 31, 2008 3:49 PM

Bill, I think there's a further aspect you're missing: McCain's mavericky/appeal to independents reputation is almost solely based on his celebrity -- people see him hanging around Jon Stewart and SNL and figure he must be an okay, relatable guy, not some right-wing fanatic. Yet much of his voting record -- and certainly alot of his behavior in this campaign -- suggests he's alot closer to that typical GOPer independents have so soured on than to that illusion of a good guy he presents in the media. I'm willing to take your argument (even if I disagree) that Obama's public persona is a cover for nothingness; but I'd counter that McCain's public persona is a cover for its opposite, and thus provides him with at least as much false appeal.

Posted by demtom | July 31, 2008 3:56 PM

My favorite definition of "celebrity" is
"famous for being famous" i.e., for no reason at all. Neither McCain nor Obama are celebrities by that definition.

Posted by BarryG | July 31, 2008 4:01 PM

it was 'Famous for being well known' -Daniel Boorstin

and

McCain had a made-for-TV movie based on his life, yet Obama is the "celebrity candidate"?

Posted by judson | July 31, 2008 4:05 PM

Gotta agree with Bill on this one. The correct response is certainly not to point out that McCain is ALSO a celebrity. The response should be to point out how silly and insulting it is to compare a man running for President to Spears or Hilton.
I think the real question about this ad that everyone's overlooking is: how is Britney handling this? I, for one, have been worried sick about her.

Posted by Stacy | July 31, 2008 4:09 PM

http://billmon.dailykos.com/

Posted by scythia | July 31, 2008 4:15 PM

I remember in the spring that I was heartened at the thought that this campaign might actually be about issues and that I might witness, for the first time in my life, a campaign worthy of our country. I thought once Hillary was out of the way we might actually have an opportunity to see what a race could like that was free of all of that bitterness and divisiveness and that perhaps these two candidates would actually take the high road. I once had respect for John McCain, now I see how naive I was. I only hope the outcome of this election is a triumph over all of that, because if he becomes President, I may lose all faith that this country can ever get back on the right track again.

Posted by Me | July 31, 2008 4:17 PM

"This is a funny skit that McCain delivered well. What happened to the guy? Now he looks awkward and in pain whenever he speaks publicly. "
Posted by Led

His new joke writers aren't as funny. Good comedy requires a reasonable setup before the crazy punchline catches you off guard. They can't get the reasonable part down.

Posted by Njorl | July 31, 2008 4:37 PM

'Famous for being well known'

But that's exactly the sense that Obama is famous. Here's a guy who is clearly not all that bright (witness all his gaffes - he doesn't know the number of states or the length of a Presidential term), has no real accomplishments to speak of, and has no real skills other than reading well off of a teleprompter.

Obama is well known. An empty suit who is well known and reads a good speech. That's it.

He isn't a military hero. He hasn't shown courage in the most trying of circumstances. He doesn't have a lengthy record in the federal government.

Posted by Al | July 31, 2008 5:10 PM

Nice RELENTLESSLY negative campaigning from McCain. This clown makes Oscar the Grouch seem like he's on Prozac.

I guess when you're ancient, losing, and your message stinks, you need to resort to out-and-out lies and typical candidate bashing. You need integrity for straight talk, and McCain is burning through whatever shreds of integrity he had left - fast.

Posted by edsbowlingshoe | July 31, 2008 5:12 PM

Time to get some video mashups going for youtube of McCain.

Posted by mikelotus | July 31, 2008 5:17 PM

"Well, the guy with eleven mansions and two private planes is telling me his opponent is an elitist."

Sure, that's a classic Rove tactic: Take one of your guy's biggest weaknesses (e.g., Bush's daddy pulling strings to get him out of going to Viet Nam) and turn it around to tar your opponent with it (person who volunteered and served in country becomes a coward who shot himself to get a purple heart).

Posted by lobstakilla | July 31, 2008 7:05 PM

Al, McCain is not a fucking "military hero". He's a fucking military fuckup who crashed five planes, blew one off the deck of his carrier, got shot down, collaborated with the enemy, then married a rich heiress and went into politics as an asshole.

Only assholes like you think an asshole like that is a "hero".

Posted by Richard Steven Hack | July 31, 2008 7:33 PM

He isn't a military hero. He hasn't shown courage in the most trying of circumstances.

And yet the war hero (who has it in his contract that all his interview questions begin with, "As a war hero, Senator McCain...") doesn't have any better policies than the AWOL twerp who's led the country down the rathole for 7+ years.

Al, do you really want start playing the game of gaffes? Better trolling, please.

Posted by ThresherK | July 31, 2008 7:33 PM

Here's a guy who is clearly not all that bright

Al, do you really believe the shit you just said? Seriously, you want to talk trash like that an expect not to be laughed at?

Posted by Tyro | July 31, 2008 8:46 PM

Hey Al, I'm sure there are a whole lot of Barack Obama/Democratic/DFA type meetups in your area (there certainly are in my not-particularly left-leaning part of the country) where you can tell real people what you think of the Democratic nominee to their faces. It would be a bit more manly to take some lumps for your principles than trolling around the internet like a coward dropping bricks off an overpass, don't you think?

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