Recently, the republicans have been enjoying and even promoting Sarah Palin’s newfound celebrity:
However,in late July, McCain’s team was slamming Obama with the “Obama/Paris Hilton celebrity ad”:
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/07/30/1233519.aspx
Question: Does anyone even care if a candidate is a "celebrity’? I mean, people are enthused about a candidate or they are not.
Also - is there a danger to the Republicans for first denigrating “celebrity status” and now embracing it?
The only reason to care is because the republicans have been using the “celebrity” thing to bash Obama.
Smoke and mirrors.
Yes, it is hypocritical to have slammed Obama for being a “celebrity” then revel in it when Palin becomes a celebrity.
On the whole I could not care less. My only potential gripe is people following one candidate or the other solely because they are caught in the celebrity mania. Kind of like how people think a given movie star somehow has some gravitas when proclaiming a view on, say, the Israel/Palestine issue. When it comes to politics the movie star has no more real credibility on the issue than you or I do but people listen to them anyway. Likewise with the candidates…if they are celebrities fine but people should remain clear that the candidates still need to provide real answers to pressing questions they are being hired for. Being star-struck is not a good basis for making a political choice.
Mr. Pot? Mr. Kettle is calling you black on line 1…
-XT
Fair enough, but do you think this has actually happened to any great degree, either with Obama or Palin?
Or is the whole “so and so is a celebrity” (positive or negative) simply a creation of the spin-meisters?
When you haven’t rammed the ball and powder down the barrel, all that remains to shoot is the flash in the pan.
McCain is supposedly the biggest celebrity whore of all the politicians - it seems he just loves to hobnob with the rich and famous. The problem is, very few want to hobnob with him, so - just like the kid who wasn’t invited to the party with his other classmates - McCain takes the sour grapes route and makes fun of Obama’s celebrity status.
It was quite obvious McCain was pissed that Streisand had her $28,500 a plate fundraiser for Obama with almost every Hollywood star in attendance, while McCain was poking around a country club in Florida with rich fat cats, but none of who were recognizable to anyone who doesn’t work in a bank. Both of them raised a nice chunk of change on pretty much the same day - but of course, Obama was called the “out of touch” celebrity pawn, while McCain pretended he was simply milling around with the average folk - you know, those non-celebrity multi-millionaires in funny golf pants.