Mockery.

You've seen the sarcastic ad. and there was the Celeb ad.

They are jokey and silly but they have a relevant point.

But the McCain ad had a serious point, one the Obama campaign obviously felt it couldn't ignore. Obama can be as arrogant, gassy and remote as other members of the country's aristocracy of fame. If this celebrity framework is successfully imposed on Obama, the entire repertoire of Obamania — the mass rallies, the soaring eloquence, the picturesque cool of the candidate himself — risks becoming a liability.

In a statement Obama repeated three times, he said what George Bush and John McCain are "going to try to do is make you scared of me. You know, he's not patriotic enough. He's got a funny name. You know, he doesn't look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills."

The latter part of that statemetn was taken apart yesterday.
But there's another problem, the ad was making Obama look like, what he actually is, a global celebrity.

That's not painting him as someone to be feared, that's painting him as someone to be seen as vapid, mockable, and not serious. People are not afraid of Spears of Hilton, though I will admit they are afraid of the idea of giving them massive responsibility over their lives.

This is they point of the ad.

That is why Obama reacted so much to that ad. Not because it made him an object to be feared, but because it threatens to make him a joke.

Meanwhile some people are really reaching for some subtext in these ads.

Here's a tip for liberals: If your candidate is going to stage enormous rallies in front of tens of thousands of chanting Germans (with monuments to Prussian military might in the background) in the middle of his Presidential campaign, it isn't the GOP's fault if the footage comes out looking a little like Hitler at Nuremberg.

Speaking of jokes.
Pelosi tried to end the debate but the Republicans thumbed their noses at her. In one move they made her and the Dems look uncaring about the economic needs of the public, unwilling to engage in a debate, willing to stifle dissident, and open to mockery. Not a good move for a group that is more unpopular than Bush that's trying to fight a very popular energy idea.