I say they a brilliant simply because attacking Obama on the basis of his popularity instead of on legitimate issues makes the ads “controversial.” That means, they get aired on all the major news networks, at no cost to the McCain campaign. McCain would already be running out of funds if he’d paid the advertising fee for each airing of these commercials. Yet, he’s paid for only a few airings, just enough to get them on the media’s radar and the media has become his campaign’s own distribution arm (whether intentionally or not) airing the commercials, in part or in full, many times over what the McCain camp could possibly hope to do on its own.

But the flip side is that the “controversy” the ads are trying to stir up is beyond stupid. First of all, since when it is a bad thing to be popular? While no doubt McCain is trying to push the idea that Obama is too “elite” (sorry, never understood that reasoning to begin with) to be president, the truth of the matter is that star power and name recognition are net gains in a political campaign. And the commercials only add to Obama’s name recognition. McCain may be getting free commercial time, but he’s using it to dump more attention onto Obama, and that attention isn’t distinctly “bad” (at most it’s neutral). The only attention McCain gets regarding the ads is the fact that he’s willing to run “attack ads.”

It’s pretty smart if you can figure out how to get somebody else to pay for spreading your message, but it’s pretty stupid when the message your spreading is “the other guy is popular, well-liked and possibly elite while I’m jealous, angry, and engaging in dirty politics.”