Internet Provides Laugh Track For Presidential Campaign SillinessInternet Provides Laugh Track For Presidential Campaign Silliness

This summer's presidential campaign is shaping up to be remarkably frivolous, and the Internet is providing the laugh track. While America deals with two wars and the possibility of a third, soaring gas prices, and a wobbly economy, the candidates and their supporters argue about flummery: Tire gauges, Paris Hilton, junk food, and biblical prophecy.Most recently, Republicans leaped into action over remarks by Barack Obama that routine car maintenance -- including keeping your tires inflated properly -- could do as much as offshore drilling to relieve the current energy squeeze. Led by Tim Pawlenty, Minnesota governor and prospective GOP vice presidential nominee, Obama's opponents claimed that maintaining tire pressure was the entirety of the Democrats' energy policy, and they started giving out tire gauges labeled "Obama's Energy Plan." (Get yours for a $25 donation.)

The McCain tire gauge ploy is a cheap shot. It misquotes Obama, who actually has a detailed energy policy (link to PDF). Moreover, Obama was right:

But McCain's cheap shot against Obama was just tit-for-tat. Earlier this summer, Obama saw imaginary racism in this ad calling Obama a celebrity and comparing him with Paris Hilton and Britney Spears.

It's a great ad. It makes valid points: Celebrity and speaking skills don't make a person ready to be president. The blog Campaign for America's Future notes that the ad uses techniques borrowed from Nazi propaganda films to make Obama appear sinister. Watch the McCain ad, then watch this Nazi propaganda film, starting at 9:20, and you'll see the similarities:

Says the New Republic's blog:

Or, as the Daily Show's Jon Stewart noted: "There's something about a charismatic leader rallying huge crowds of Germans in a large public square."

Blogger Rodger A. Payne notes that McCain has pretty good celebrity credentials himself, appearing on the Daily Show With Jon Stewart at least 13 times, Jay Leno 10 times, David Letterman eight times, and seven other shows, including Entertainment Tonight and The View. He also appeared in the sex comedy The Wedding Crashers.

But Paris Hilton got the last word:

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

The Internet played an even larger role in two other, recent election controversies.

Bloggers were in the forefront of giving The Wall Street Journal heat for an article questioning whether Obama's health would prove to be a campaign problem. No, Obama isn't ailing -- quite the contrary, he's lean, fit, and athletic. And that could be a problem when you're running for president of a nation of couch potatoes, the Journal notes:

I thought it was a pretty good article, entertaining and lighthearted, looking at presidential physical fitness and reaching back a full century to William Howard Taft, and beyond to Abraham Lincoln. The Journal noted that Clinton's weight problems helped endear him to voters:

But Obama-supporting bloggers found the article outrageous. The blog Sadly, No claims that the Journal writer based the article on a single comment on a Yahoo forum, which is simply untrue; the Yahoo comment was just one point in a well-researched article. Daring Fireball's John Gruber picks up on the false accusation, declaring, "Hard to Believe Some People Thought The Wall Street Journal Would Go to Hell After Rupert Murdoch Bought It."

But the weirdest campaign controversy of all is about this McCain ad, which uses religious imagery to poke fun at Obama's charisma:

Seems pretty straightforward to me and obviously tongue-in-cheek. But the Huffington Post describes how religious Obama-supporting bloggers are accusing the McCain campaign of feeding fears that Obama is preparing the way for the Antichrist. Sounds paranoid -- but, in fact, some people really do think Obama is a dark figure from biblical prophecy.

The Wall Street Journal has more, including further connections between the McCain ad and apocalyptic pop culture.

This kind of silliness is nothing new in American electoral politics. Indeed, if you go all the way back to the 1884 Grover Cleveland election, you'll find a campaign that looks familiar to today's Americans: The Democratic candidate was accused of sexual immorality, and one of the Republican candidate's surrogates made a bigoted remark that alienated a key bloc of minority voters.

However, the Internet speeds things up. And it provides an echo chamber, allowing both sides of the campaign, as well as their surrogates, supporters, and cheering sections, to get the word out.

Perhaps the most important effect of the Internet is one you're soaking in right now: It allows the voters to research the issues -- as you can see here in this blog post, which I've packed with links and embedded video so you can go and find more for yourself, if you're so inclined.

I've been writing about the Internet through four presidential elections -- this is the fifth -- and it's been fascinating to watch the Internet's role change, election to election. In 1992, the Internet didn't register. In 1996, the big Internet angle was that Clinton had a Web site (check it out in all its 1996 ugliness). E-mail newsletters were the breakthrough of the 2000 campaign. The 2004 campaign saw two advances: The Democrats excelled at using the Internet for fund raising, while Republican supporters had a battalion of loyal bloggers on their side.

I've been trying for a couple of months now to discern a trend in Internet campaigning this year, and I can't find one. Maybe the reason is that there is none. The Internet is everywhere, therefore it's invisible. Take a look back at the links in this blog post -- many of them point to content that initially appeared in print newspapers or television. But they all find their way to the Internet eventually, as everything does.

As to the outlook for the November election: McCain is proving himself a much more deft user of satire and humor than Obama is. He's trying to paint a picture of Obama as an empty-headed celebrity. McCain is building on the successes of the last two presidential elections, when Republicans were able to make their Democratic opponents look ridiculous.

But 2008 is not 2000 or 2004, and Obama isn't Al Gore or John Kerry. Republicans had momentum on their side in 2000 and 2004, which they don't this year. The Democratic candidates in the two most recent elections were clumsy campaigners and just plain boring; by contrast, even Obama's opponents concede he's a skilled, charismatic campaigner.

McCain wields the humor rapier deftly -- but that might not be the winning weapon for 2008.

What do you think? Are there any new, significant trends in the candidates' use of Internet this year? Let us know.