I am sure that John McCain and his advisor thought that this was a no brainier. Paint Obama as an airhead celebrity type like Paris Hilton and Britney Spears and diminish his stature in the eyes of the public.
For a brief moment it seemed to work as the polls begin to show that Karl Rove politics can and do work. But something happened that the older political hacks around McCain were not qualified to see. They not only pissed off Paris Hilton, they may have pissed off and lost an entire generation for the Republican Party.
Her adfomercial got wide attention and appeal, as she knew it would. A young blond white girl in a Bikini often does the trick in America, and Paris is not just the average blond. You Tube is making the personal ad or commercial possible because it gives people a place to play it. If it's successful, it gets a lot of play on the national media. Paris had the money and the talent around her to maximize the technology, and I believe that she has opened up Pandora's box.
Paris made a larger political statement than most of the candidates who ran in the last election. Her ad and her words will be remembered for years to come, and her dismissal of John McCain as the "Old, wrinkled white-haired dude" will haunt him for the rest of this campaign and ultimately may be his Willie Horton.
The Hilton name screams Republican with a capital R, but she is not the typical Hilton. Nor is she is the first member of the Wealthy elite to end up being a celebrity without doing anything particular. She has merged with the new hip-hop millionaires and professional athletes and represents a new kind of racial mixing in America. They don't cross the tracks to see each other, they just build a different community somewhere else where they can freely do their thing.
McCain's attack on Obama, through Hilton and Britney Spears, became indirectly an attack on the morals and lifestyle of an entire generation. A generation that will use the Internet to punish him for it.
It was clear from the beginning of this race that John McCain's campaign was slow to see the value of the Internet. They never understood the power of You Tube as a mass communications network because most of their friends and associates were of a different generation.
They are still coming to grips with how an ad made by a private person and run for free on an Internet social networking site could get more action than their professional ad which cost millions to make and broadcast.
Paris has changed the tone of this campaign. McCain is no longer the distinguished senator from Arizona. He is now just that wrinkled, old white haired dude.
Many political experts believe that Obama made a huge mistake when he told groups and organizations around the nation to send their money directly to his campaign rather than create personal ads to attack McCain. Now that strategy may look like it was designed by a genius as an entirely new group of people can attack McCain without Obama having anything to do with it.
The Karl Rove political tactics were able to elect George Bush twice and destroy the hopes of two different Democratic presidential hopefuls, and, for a moment, it looked like Obama would also be a victim.
But change is a tricky word because it often represents a shift, which has already taken place. It's a shift in the way people see their personal and collective worlds. Obama did not create the change. He is simply the night crier letting you know it's here. Attacking or diminishing the personal stature of the messenger will not stop the change, and it's no longer possible to totally suppress information in this new Internet world.
Our world is now full of Paris Hilton's who have the money and ability to let all of us know just how they feel. It's not wise to casually piss them off.
Charlie James may be reached via editor@sdistrictjournal.com.[[In-content Ad]]