Okay, after attending an MLS game last night (Go United!) I was bored, and decided to pop in a movie. I'm in the process of moving, so most of my DVDs were gone. I settled on Wedding Crashers. About half an hour or so into the film, who should appear on my screen but Johnny McCain! In the same shot as such Hollywood elitists as Rachel McAdams and Christopher Walken, no less! Apparently Grandpa doesn't have time to show up to his day job in the Senate more than half the time, but he does have time to appear in boffo box office sex comedies. (Thank God there was no "unrated" footage of him.) This got me curious: where else did Grandpa McCain use his political celebrity for kicks? And how can this be turned around on his new line of attack? After one use of "a google" and ten minutes later, I had a few ideas.
Looking at McCain's IMdb page, one can see he is really a well rounded celebrity, having added such hits as 24 and WWF Raw to his resumé. Johnny Mac is fast approaching Will Smith and Harrison Ford as bankable box office stars!
Ideas started swimming in my head --- response ads to the "Celeb" flap --- quick sound bites. Things we need to be getting on top of. For example, the next time McCain calls Obama a celebrity, Obama's campaign (keep it to spokesmen and surrogates) could respond with and choice of:
"John McCain hasn't had time to vote in the Senate 63% of the time this Congress, but he did have time to film a cameo in Wedding Crashers. Nice work if you can get it."
OR
"We've seen the ad, but we thought Senator McCain was funnier in Wedding Crashers."
OR
"It looks like John McCain is getting the presidential campaign confused with his cameo appearance on WWF Raw."
AND FINALLY
"We're confident that John McCain is a leading expert on celebrity status, having appeared in Wedding Crashers, 24, WWF Raw, Saturday Night Live, and having had a TV movie based on his life. What he himself admits he's not an expert on is the economy."
That last one can pivot slyly from McCain's plan of attack and get things back onto fertile ground. In my opinion, this is what the Obama folks need to start doing if this kind of thing continues, which I think we all know it will.