Hollywood Hype May Hurt Obama
We already knew that Hollywood loves Obama. But we sure are getting daily reminders of it.
All those e-mails (from Barack himself) inviting people to win a dinner with him at George Clooney’s house. The new ad from Sarah Jessica Parker (touting the president and dinner at her house). Anna Wintour, Scarlett Johannsen and the gang chiming in.
I’m not sure this helps the president connect with struggling middle-class voters. Lauren Ashburn thinks I’m wrong, that people love celebs. That’s why we had this video debate.
White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer brushed off the question in a video interview with me for The Daily Beast, saying Mitt Romney was spending time with a more troubling celebrity–Donald Trump, who’s been pushing the birther conspiracy theory again.
It’s a standard Republican attack line, of course, that Obama likes to hang with the Hollywood glitterati. In 2008, John McCain uncorked an ad comparing him to Paris Hilton. Now Rush Limbaugh is calling him Barack Kardashian. Come on: nobody thinks that Obama grooves on spending time with movie stars the way that, say, Bill Clinton did.
But there’s such a thing as overdoing it. And for every Sex and the City fan attracted by Sarah Jessica Parker, others may wonder whether Obama should be seen more often surrounded by steelworkers and firemen and teachers—people who aren’t famous, but whose votes will decide this election.
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