The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Washington

White House contender John McCain invoked gossip-page perennials Britney Spears and Paris Hilton to portray Democrat Barack Obama as a vapid celebrity who was unfit to lead.

The McCain campaign and Republican Party rolled out a concerted offensive to allege that Obama, fresh from an overseas tour, was keener to soak in the adulation of adoring crowds than to offer real solutions for US voters. The Illinois senator hit back to accuse a rattled McCain of promoting no positive ideas about how he might address challenging issues such as the faltering US economy and the Iraq war. "It's beyond dispute that he's become the biggest celebrity in the world," Steve Schmidt, a senior adviser to McCain, told reporters as the campaign unveiled a national television ad called "Celeb." "The question we are posing to the American people is this, is he ready to lead yet? The answer that we will offer to the American people is, no he is not," he said.

The ad features images of the pop diva Spears and the socialite Hilton, both known as much for their off-field antics as for their professional activities, and a sea of 200,000 people listening to Obama speak in Berlin last week.

It juxtaposes those images with claims that the Democrat's policies would raise taxes and increase imports of foreign oil.