Mark me down as a bit puzzled by the decision of Barack Obama's campaign to respond - several days late - to John McCain's "celebrity" ad against Obama by putting up a "celebrity" ad of their own.
"If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then the new Obama ad targeting McCain as a celebrity suggests McCain's Paris/Britney line of attack may have been seen within the Obama camp as successful," wrote Josh Marshall at talkingpointsmemo.com.
If that is the case - then why hit back at McCain with celebrity stuff? Why not respond with policy?
Both campaigns have made a series of strategy decisions this summer that make me shake my head. McCain's team acted like a bunch frat boys coming up with Rush Week Pranks to play on Obama when he was in Europe, like sending McCain to a German restaurant.
I do think it is interesting that the celebrity thing got under Obama's skin.
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I can't devote this entire blog to complete election crap, when there is such a huge news story developing with the Russia-Georgia conflict.
U.S. officials made clear on Monday that the Russians have evidently been planning this for some time, and (surprise, surprise) simply ginned up some bogus excuses to get things going.
McCain went Hard Line on Vladimir Putin from the start of this on Friday, and has continued in that vein, drawing howls from the Left that the Arizona Senator seems intent on starting a nuclear war with the Kremlin.
Obama meanwhile tried to use a statement to knock both sides, but that didn't work, as he was forced to issue a couple of statements that raised questions about his team's foreign policy credentials.
One line of attack for Obama related to Georgia could certainly be the idea that the War in Iraq caused us to lose focus on the Russians, without many people paying attention down at the State Department.
Truth be told, most of Congress has lost its focus on the Russians, other than a few members who have been warning that Putin represents a threat to democracy there - and now in other countries like Georgia.
McCain and Obama can debate about what group should try to step in to mediate an end to the violence (UN, NATO, etc.) but it really doesn't matter.
US and European leaders are the same stuffed shirts in 2008 as they were in 1968 on the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia, the 1956 crackdown by the Soviets in Hungary, the pre-Second World War II moves of Hitler and Kaiser Wilhem's pre-World War I maneuvers.
We do a very good job of demanding that the aggression stop, but don't put any military might behind it, until it is too late.
Celebrity ads are pretty funny stuff, good grist for the mill.
But the real rubber meets the road when Putin starts acting like Joseph Stalin. It's easy to talk tough in public, but maybe not as easy to do something to help civilians who are about to be wiped off the map in Georgia.
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