John McCain’s "Celebs" ad, released yesterday, has garnered an enormous amount of free publicity, most of it withering. For starters, the WashPost’s Trail blog notes that the spot’s claim about an Obama electricity tax is untrue. Former McCain confidant and adviser John Weaver told Marc Ambinder of the Atlantic it was "childish." The St. Pete Times published a feisty editorial blasting the influence of Karl Rove proteges on McCain’s campaign. And Wired’s Threat Level blog notes that an online backlash, complete with video mashup ripostes, is in full swing.

But most of this misses what McCain is up to here. "Celebs" ostensibly concerns Barack Obama’s inexperience and unseriousness as measured against the seasoned statesmanship of McCain, whose eye is ever scanning the Iraq-Pakistan border for signs of trouble. It thus seems pitched to undecided moderates and independents. I hereby submit they are not the target audience at all. This is a Mark-of-Rove production aimed squarely at the party’s working class evangelical base, and its real payload has everything to do with a) linking Obama to decadent mass culture in the persons of Paris and Britney and b) pointing out how well-loved Obama is by the menacing billions out there whom God did not see fit to make Americans.  The real point here is to goad those elements of the McCain-alienated cultural right that might be thinking of sitting this one out to go cast their vote against Hollywood, public sodomy and other forms of cosmopolitanism.

Expect to see this vein mined consistently from here on out. Below, the ad, followed by the response that Team Obama released within hours.

John McCain: "Celebs" (:30)

 

Barack Obama: "Low Road" (:30)