Submitted to a Candid World

With increasing certainty, November will see John McCain, the old guard of the Republican party, facing off against Barack Obama, the young, resurgent populist wing of the Democratic party. It’s hard to see how McCain’s age will not be an issue.

But I didn’t expect it to become an issue by his own creation:

I came across this on a Google banner adspace: an animated clip featuring young, fighter pilot McCain. Apparently, the McCain campaign is tackling the issue of their candidate’s age by… denying its existence. While it’s not exactly on par with “Cindy McCain’s Homemade Recipes,” this is still an impressive little bit of spin.

I want to be clear: I don’t think this is dishonest campaigning. I just think it’s clever, and kind of funny. Sort of like Hillary Clinton’s accent (and that’s the last time you’ll see me link to Fox News. Ever). But this is one of those little bits of campaigning that’s not in and of itself dishonest, tacky, or controversial, but can easily be blown way out of proportion and dominate the 24-hour news networks, just because they need something to fill the air space. Parallel this with Obama’s lapel pin, or lack thereof. One other blogger has noticed this ad; maybe this will become big.

The question in my mind is, will we see more ads like this? Younger fighter pilot McCain, campaigning for older politician McCain? Or is its circulation fairly low (relegated to Google Ads) precisely because of its disconnect with reality?