What McCain gains and loses by dismissing Obama as a celebrity

It’s hard to know what voters will make of John McCain’s ad mocking Barack Obama as a celebrity, said Marc Ambinder in his blog at TheAtlantic.com. Maybe they will associate the Democratic presidential candidate with Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, and question whether he’s ready to lead. But they might be disappointed that McCain, the maverick, is resorting to negative ads.

There’s nothing negative, said Michelle Malkin in National Review Online, in pointing out how Obama is using star power to hide his “perilous lack of foreign-policy experience" and other flaws. After all, it was the Obamas who thrust themselves into the “Hollyweird pop-culture galaxy” by hawking their kids to Access Hollywood and schmoozing on The View.

Then McCain shouldn’t mind if Obama launches attack ads of his own, said Jonathan Chait in the Los Angeles Times. McCain is scoring points with his broadsides, but his plentiful “blunders” aren’t costing him because the spotlight is always on Obama. It’s time for Obama to start pointing out how the one-time maverick McCain has abandoned every position that once distinguished him from President Bush.

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Obama didn’t pull punches with his response to the celebrity ad, said Jake Tapper in ABC News’ Political Punch blog. He accused the McCain campaign of trying to scare voters by saying Obama is new and “doesn’t look like the other presidents on the currency,” which sounds like he's accusing McCain “of peddling racism and xenophobia.”

(Watch the McCain ad on YouTube)