The American Spectator

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8.7.08 @ 12:01AM

(Page 2 of 5)

I don't know...his judgment that she "isn't even close to being pretty" sounds pretty clouded, to me. Whatever you may think of her ability as a porn star, or her mocking of McCain's age, she's undeniably a pretty woman. If you can't see that much, then what else have you blinded yourself to? Especially if you can see well enough to tell from presumably a single watching that she isn't a very good porn star.
-- Gregg Calkins

Eh, I don't think it's really that serious. The target of McCain's ad was not even really Obama and definitely not Paris Hilton. It was, rather, a pathetically stupid media/entertainment culture that is seriously trying to make it seem like you should vote for Obama because he's "cool" or "The One." This point had to be made and the ad will greatly raise the spirits of all the people who now have something to throw back at this culture.

Obama responded about as well as anyone could expect, with "Is that all you got?" Even better would have been a rueful chuckle first, acknowledging that indeed some of the hype is out of control but I didn't really expect that.

As far as Paris Hilton I guess I got the impression she really didn't take it all that seriously and was just having fun. Why should she be mad? Publicity is publicity. She said things like "I'll propose my energy plan when I'm done getting a tan" which was kind of a tip that she isn't really somebody we need to be listening to. If she really was put up to it by Obama's friends in Hollywood I think it backfired. As it was McCain's campaign took it perfectly by saying that she had a more substantive energy plan than Obama.
If the end result is a) more focus on substance by the candidates, b) a good laugh all around and c) a deflation of the idea that Obama should be elected because he is the biggest rock star, then everybody wins, especially McCain.

And by the way, somebody ask Mr. Stein how the "Lone Survivor" movie is coming along...
-- Roy Koczela

Ben needs to Lighten up a little. John McCain's commercial on the media cult of celebrity central to Obama's campaign did use Paris Hilton as a calibration marker in media obsession. She is perfectly responsible in commenting on it.

Paris Hilton is known for many things. Ben is right that all of them are light weight. When her "response" to John McCain showed more gravitas than the entire DNC and Obama campaign combined and an energy policy to the right of anything that the House of Representatives Speaker will allow to be discussed, Paris did the country no harm. She now serves as a scale to which Congressional Representatives can be held. "Is he/she as responsible as Paris Hilton?" My congressman here in eastern Connecticut, one of the men who tried to purge Joe Lieberman from the Senate, certainly is not.
-- Gregory Franke

BLAND, BORING... PERFECT?
Re: Jeremy Lott's Bayh, Bayh, Miss American Pie?:

Evan Bayh was also governor of great state of Indiana for eight mind-numbing years in which he did nothing but feed from the public trough. He is petrified of doing or saying anything to alienate any potential voter but, if forced to take a stand, will vote the Democrat party line every time. He is notorious for talking conservative at home but voting liberal in Washington. Good riddance if he is chosen by and subsequently elected. It may be the only good thing to come from an Obama presidency.
-- David Heinekamp
Indianapolis, Indiana

Following in his father's footsteps, when Evan Bayh first appeared on the horizon, little did we expect that the newspapers and television news programs suddenly display a belief in feudal primogenitor How else could we explain how such a young man with little accomplishment becomes destined to climb with political ladder. Evan scarcely spent any time living in Indiana prior running for his first office as, being a son of a Senator; he actually grew up in Washington.

Still, Evan Bayh supposedly exuded that mysterious, indefinable quality referred to as "Hoosier values." To outsiders, all Hoosier values add up to hard work, integrity, honor and common sense. To those native to Indiana, however, their state's mysterious values suggest a little ineffable loftiness that comes from saunter about the sacred hills and dales in the land of the Indians. (OK. Maybe not. But my guess is as good as anybody's.)

The more sober political note takers watched Evan's rise and comment that, whatever the issue that would land on his desk, he would always do what was good for Evan Bayh. Once Evan rode into Congress, even the dense among them realized that Evan's promises of independence and levelheaded cooperation went out the door and D.C. Democrat marching orders came in. Again, Evan did what was good for Evan Bayh.

Whereas the Vice President's office is another rung up the ladder for Bayh, America will just get another professional politician. Bland. "Moderate." A practiced politician who has little to recommend or distinguish himself except a personal conviction that he is destined for higher office -- the office his father was unable to attain. As they say, some come to Washington to do something. Others come to Washington to be something.
-- Mike Dooley

100%
Re: Robert Stacy McCain's Is Obama's Victory a Statistical Certainty?:

Extrapolate this -- Obama is all wind-up and no pitch. And on Convention night when he steps up to the plate, he would do well to remember -- you can't steal first base.
-- Diane Smith

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Health Care, John McCain, Television, Abortion, Hollywood, Law, NATO, Energy, Oil