Blake’s Blog

Well, it looks like John McCain finally pulled out the heavy artillery.

In a television advertisement that began airing yesterday, McCain compared rival Barack Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears.

"He’s the biggest celebrity in the world," an announcer in the ad says, as viewers see quick photos of Hilton and Spears cut into scenes from Obama’s speech to 200,000 in Berlin last week. "But is he ready to lead?"

Maybe it’s just me, but that ad comes across as making McCain seem just a tad jealous of Obama.

But there’s an easy way McCain could remedy the situation. He should fight fire with fire by picking either Hilton or Spears (or both?) as his vice-presidential running mate.

Before you call me crazy, consider these advantages to a McCain-Hilton/Spears ticket:

1.) McCain’s been complaining about Obama getting the bulk of the media attention in this race. That wouldn’t be a problem if he had his very own celebrity running mate.

2.) One of the knocks against McCain has been his age. Adding Hilton and/or Spears would provide some balance to the Republican ticket in that regard.

3.) Also, adding Hilton or Spears to the ticket would provide gender balance.

4.) Picking Hilton and/or Spears would finally make people forget all about George H.W. Bush’s decision to pick Dan Quayle as a running mate.

5a.) Hilton’s succinct and catchy catchphrase ("That’s hot") would almost certainly play well in debates.

5b.) After years of honing her driving skills to evade the paparazzi, Spears could fill in for McCain’s motorcade driver in a pinch.

I could go on and on, but I’m sure I’ve already sold you on this idea. If McCain’s worried about his standing in a celebrity-crazy culture, he knows what he needs to do.