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McCain continues his ad theme, making fun of the worship of Barack Obama.

McCain takes the risky approach of mocking our love for the other man:

Sorry, John, I found myself smiling through all those images ? and it was always pretty easy to pick up the humor and the missing context of all the various things Obama was saying.

And as for that "10 Commandments" punchline... Althouse did it first. I feel like you owe me a link.

But the important question is: Will ads like this and "the biggest celebrity" one work? As I said on the radio show yesterday ? listen to the first few minutes ? it's risky to show ads like this, but I think they work because of the way that they acknowledge that a lot of us love and enjoy Barack Obama, but urge us to separate that love from the serious question whether he is ready to be President. That is how the ads work for me. Now, I do think the ads works differently for different people.

Those who already don't like Obama can have a laugh. Aren't the people who worship the man ridiculous? This is the way Rush Limbaugh took it:

I'll tell you, if the Obama people got mad and fed up over the Britney Spears celebutard ad, this is going to frost 'em. This is fabulous. This is Barack Obama's words right back at him. This is what Obama has said. And it's fun! It's having fun, yes, but it's his own words thrown right back at him.

Obama devotees can also enjoy a laugh: Our candidate is so fantastic that the only thing McCain can come up with is that he's just too fantastic. We can't promote him with lavish worship ? isn't it hilarious that McCain is doing the worship mode for us?

But the key is how the ads affect independent, undecided voters. (Like me!) And I think they may be succeeding in encouraging us to separate our thinking about Obama into 2 parts:

1. He's really cool and great and this whole campaign is a lot of fun.

2. Being President is a deadly serious and immensely difficult and important business and we've got to pick the man who is better prepared to take it on.

Full post as published by Althouse on August 02, 2008 (boomark / email).