The Obama campaigns response to McCain “celebrity” ad:

Apparently, the McCain is just starting to come to grips with the fact that Barack Obama is a celebrity. Today, they cut this awe-inspiring (enter snark) ad pointing out that, like Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, Barack Obama is also well known around the world.

Okay, I understand what they’re trying to do. They want to make Obama into this messianic figure who is too big for politics and too star-studded to deal with the problems Americans are facing. In fact, this ad might even work with some voters. However, it’s flimsy and it reeks of desperation. As Tim Kaine told us yesterday, they are trying to stop a runaway bus and they are grabbing onto anything they can in order to slow the momentum down. In the meantime, they are discrediting their candidate who pledged civility and who said he wanted to run a positive, constructive campaign.

I hope this ad backfires. I hope the McCain campaign will spend their money on talking about issues, like Obama has been. I hope they will stop this silly attempt to define Obama as something that he’s not and I hope that Obama will aggressively repudiate these ads and remind voters the stakes of this election. (Wow, that’s a lot of hopes!)

On a lighter note, I guess Britney Spears and John McCain do have more in common than we thought:

UPDATE: Obama campaign senior adviser David Axelrod responds.

The right wing and the cable talking heads are in a tizzy this morning over Dana Milbank’s second hand reporting of a quote from Barack Obama said to a meeting of House Democrats. While the campaign isn’t denying that Obama did say the words, “I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions,” as almost always happens in these cases the context is missing. And no, not that kind of context. Politico reports:

BUT A DEMOCRATIC SOURCE SAYS: “His entire point of that riff was that the campaign IS NOT about him. [The Post] left out the important first half of the sentence, which was along the lines of: ‘It has become increasingly clear in my travel, the campaign, that the crowds, the enthusiasm, 200,000 people in Berlin, is not about me at all. It’s about America. I have just become a symbol … .”

It sometimes seem as if this election is a test of whether or not America can still understand nuance.

What a day for DoubleSpeak! This morning we scored an interview with Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia and were able to be among the first people to ask him about the Washington Post’s reports that he sits atop Senator Barack Obama’s shortlist for Vice-President.

We’ve posted over at HuffingtonPost’s OffTheBus but wanted to give some love to all you DoubleSpeakers out there too. Here’s the recap as described on the HuffPo:

Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia woke up this morning to a new reality. He is, as reported by the Washington Post, on the short list to be Sen. Barack Obama’s running mate.

Kaine’s monthly radio appearance to discuss local issues pre-scheduled for today on WTOP radio in Washington, DC, was cast in different, higher intensity light. Kaine was joined by his colleagues DC Mayor Adrian Fenty and Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley.

It was quite a scene with a catered buffet (which included an omelet station) and a throng of reporters waiting to get an answer to the question of the day: will Kaine be Obama’s Vice-Presidential pick?

Immediately following the radio broadcast, we were able to get a few minutes with the Governor and ask a number of questions about his personal reaction to the attention he’s receiving and to get his response to Sen. McCain’s recent attacks on Sen. Obama’s overseas trip.

Kaine on McCain’s campaign:

“It’s just desperation. They’re just looking for a handle to grab on and slow the momentum of this bus down. And, it’s a different strategy every couple of days. It really has the air of desperation about it.”

Kaine on Vice-Presidential Speculation:

“…I’m not going to make the case for myself because that’s not why I’ve endorsed Senator Obama…”

“And, it still seems unlikely to me, it’s nice being mentioned. My Mom likes it, you know, but look, I got on board in February of ‘07 because I knew the country needed a change in direction and from a good Democratic field– I thought the field was a good field– he just struck as the guy who could change the direction of the nation. I’m just so gratified by the way the campaign has been run and the chance we have nationally but also in Virginia.”

“It’s a little surreal. It’s surreal to be mentioned and again it’s nice to be considered but I know there’s a lot of folks they’re looking at– there’s a lot of different skills and attributes that they have to weigh– personal, geographic, political — a whole series of things. But, you know, I have grown to have tremendous confidence in Barack’s judgment, in the judgment of his team, in very hard moments along the campaign, you know, I’ve kind of been with him when things were going well and not so well but they’ve always, in a cool and deliberate way, made a good judgment, and I have no doubt that the pick they make is going to be a strong one.”

For more images click here.

A very special thank you to our talented photographer Kate Sokolov who negotiated her way through the gaggle of reporters to get some great pics. We also want to thank Governor Kaine’s staff for allowing us great access during the WTOP interview and for granting us one of the only one-on-one interviews of the morning.

I just took a screen shot of the Republican National Committee’s website. Notice the countdown clock still reads 925 days, 01 hours, 07 minutes, 00 seconds since Barack Obama has last visited Iraq.

Did the RNC miss something? Wasn’t Obama in Iraq this past week meeting with Iraqi leaders, soldiers and commanders on the ground?

Why hasn’t the RNC changed their countdown clock?

I need to watch the speech again a couple of times, because there was a lot going on in my office this afternoon and I didn’t catch everything…but from what I heard, this seems to be a truly monumental performance for Barack Obama. If you haven’t had a chance to watch yet, here’s the video:

I’ll do a longer post tonight or tomorrow about my reaction to the speech, as well as the entire overseas tour.

John McCain is running as someone who stood up to President Bush on the Iraq War. He has attempted to run as an independent maverick, often times referring to himself as a critic of the Bush administration’s handling on the war. Well, this video picks that argument apart statement-by-statement. It is true that McCain has noted his frustration on the implementation of the war over the past six years, but as the video record shows, he never really stood up against Bush & Company.

I have had many debates over the past couple months with some very smart people who support John McCain and they have tried to justify their support by saying that Barack Obama doesn’t have the judgment yet to be President of the United States. Well, you want to talk about judgment…watch this video. The evidence could not be clearer.

“This is like Britney Spears complaining that the hype around Miley Cyrus far exceeds her talent.”

– ABC News’ Jake Tapper, on Sen. John McCain’s complaints about media “devotion” to Sen. Barack Obama.

Another great video from JibJab.