Candidate 'celebrity' game cuts both ways

Analysis

By Amy Walter

updated 2:29 p.m. ET Aug. 13, 2008

Amy Walter • E-mail

WASHINGTON - As much as John McCain 's camp wants to mock Barack Obama for his worldwide fame, it's McCain who's been spending lots of time lately playing up his longstanding relationships with foreign leaders. And it's Obama who's been taking a more local, less global advertising approach, tailoring ads to fit issues relevant to various regions of the country.

At a rally in York, Pa., on Tuesday, McCain drew on firsthand experience in Georgia to make some points about Russia's recent invasion. He even took to calling Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili by his nickname, "Misha." But is his solidarity shoutout that "we are all Georgians" really so different from Obama's "people of Berlin, people of the world, this is our moment; this is our time"?

Any day McCain gets to flex his foreign policy muscles is a good day for him. And in a race where both sides are quick to pounce on the other for flip-flops, McCain has earned praise in the punditry world for his consistently hard line on Russia. The Arizona senator hopes to remind voters of Ronald Reagan and his defanging of the Soviet bear. But will echoes of the Cold War really resonate with most folks? For voters under 30, the U.S.S.R. is ancient history. When the Berlin Wall came down, the oldest of them were in high school and the youngest hadn't been born.

More important, while the Georgian conflict and its images are compelling, most Americans know little, if anything, about it. In his York speech, reports MSNBC/National Journal's Adam Aigner-Treworgy, McCain "plac[ed] the current conflict in a historical context, explaining the history of Georgia and recounting the invasions the country has survived." Usually, if you have to explain to voters why they should care about something, it's a sign that the issue probably won't gain that much traction. The Russian attacks also come at peak vacation time, when fewer people are reading newspapers or watching cable TV.

Obama's camp, meanwhile, has put up a collection of ads in recent days that home in on issues unique to their regions.

INTERACTIVE Candidate Brain Trusts See who is in the inner circles of the campaigns of Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama. NBC News

"Backyard" which is running on TV in Las Vegas and Reno, Nev., hits McCain for his support of storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain -- an unpopular position in the state. The campaign is also targeting bikers in Milwaukee, where Harley-Davidson is based, and in York, which has big production facilities; a radio ad  there accuses McCain of not caring about "American-made motorcycles," citing his opposition to requirements that the government buy American.

In Ohio, a radio ad charges that McCain's intervention on behalf of DHL is putting 8,200 Ohio jobs at risk, and rural voters are being encouraged to paint the Obama logo onto their barns.

The goal, it seems, is to wipe clear the "celebrity" image that McCain and Republicans are trying to pin on Obama. Yeah, he can captivate massive throngs in Berlin, the campaign is implying, but he also knows and cares about the real-life issues that affect Americans in their neighborhoods.

Still, the fact that all the new Obama ads are negative, with no focus on specific solutions, undermines his "different kind of politics" mantra. It's easy to roll out the opposition research book and cobble together an effective attack ad. It's much harder to come up with ads that talk about ways to bring about solutions to these often intractable problems.

Including, for instance, the ailing economy. That's one area where capturing voters' imagination or soothing their anxiety is a task yet to be completed.

McCain concedes, urges unity with Obama NYT: Palin calls her critics 'jerks' Obama elected 44th president Subscribe to McCain headlines -

Obama vows change in policy on Cuba Obama elected 44th president Names surface for top Obama jobs Subscribe to Obama headlines -

MORE FROM NATIONAL JOURNAL

National Journal Section Front

Mercurio: Uncertainty for Blue Dogs Walter: Obama budgeting political capital Cook: Obama showing a steady hand Brownstein: Use a strategy of inclusion Blumenthal: Pollsters pretty accurate National Journal Section Front