After spending much of the summer searching for an effective line of attack against Barack Obama, John McCain is beginning a new aggressive campaign to paint Obama as arrogant, out of touch, and unprepared for the presidency.On Wednesday, the McCain campaign released a new advertisement suggesting— and not in a good way — that Obama is a celebrity along the lines of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. Republicans tried to portray Obama as a candidate who believes the race is all about him. The Republican National Committee began an anti-Obama website called “Audacity Watch”, a play on the title of Obama’s book The Audacity of Hope. And, in a concerted volley of television interviews, news releases, and e-mails, campaign representatives attacked him on a wide range of issues, including tax policies and energy proposals. The moves are the McCain campaign’s most full-throttled effort to define Obama negatively by creating a narrative intended to turn the public off to the opponent.Although Obama has been under an intense public spotlight for the last year, he is still relatively new on the national scene, and polls indicate that for all the enthusiasm he has generated among his supporters, many voters still have questions about him, providing Republicans an opening to shape his image in critical groups like white working-class voters between now and Election Day.Central to the latest McCain drive is an attempt to use against Obama the huge crowds and excitement he has drawn, including those on his foreign trip last week, by promoting a view of him as more interested in attention.The intensity of the drive has surprised even some allies of McCain. On Wednesday Andrea Tantaros, a Republican strategist, said that the use of Paris Hilton in McCain’s commercial was “absurd and juvenile”.Obama’s campaign seized on those concerns, trying to turn the tables by portraying McCain as cranky and negative. The Democratic National Committee called McCain “McNasty.”Late Wednesday Obama released a counter advertisement citing editorials critical of McCain’s latest volley of attacks and featuring an announcer who says, “John McCain, Same old politics, same failed policies.”The new focus has been welcomed by some Republicans. “They’re now in a position of driving news as opposed to reacting to it,” said Brian Jones, a former aide to McCain.
