The Republicans are hoping their new ad, Celeb, will piece the Obamamania bubble by likening him to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.

McCain ad targets “celebrity” Obama. The McCain camp has released a new ad which portrays Barack Obama as a celebrity lightweight alongside other poptarts Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, and poses the question “but is he ready to lead?”. The Taylor Marsh blog writes up the conference call which McCain’s strategists held to talk about the new ad, and says the Obama response has been inadequate so far.

Is Obama buying his own hype? The Trail says Obama’s copping some stick for telling a meeting of House Democrats yesterday that the crowd of 20,000 people at his Berlin speech showed “”I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions.” (indeed, some are even questioning whether the size of the Berlin crowd was exaggerated.)

National Review Online went even further, saying “Now we know why Obama took the American flag off his lapel. On July 24, in Berlin, he told us. The American flag is too small to contain him. He is not comfortable being an American citizen, only fully comfortable as a citizen of the world.”

The Ted Stevens problem. We told you yesterday that the indictment of Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens would be a headache for the Republican party. Today, the Swamp blog asked if it could hand the Democrats the magical 60 seats they’ll need for a clear Senate majority. Ouch.

Romneymania. According to the political futures markets, Mitt Romney now has a better chance of being McCain’s running mate than McCain has of winning. — Slate

McCain and the Rove effect. Yesterday’s New York Times editorial chided the McCain camp for taking “the low road” by giving control of his campaign PR to the “disciples” of controversial Dubya strategist Karl Rove. The QandO blog bit back today: “If you remain above the political fray, the fray will move right past you without noticing you’re there. This is bare-knuckle territory. And who has won the last two bare-knuckle contests? Karl Rove.”

More trouble for Rove? An eagle-eyed tipster found some links suggesting that more evidence may be on its way about the long-discussed election tampering allegations from the 2004 election which saw George W. Bush pip Al Gore to the post.

  • Karl Rove accused by attorney in Ohio elections fraud case of intimidating a witness; meanwhile, expert claims to have fresh evidence of possible irregularities — The Moderate Voice
  • Rove threat to blackmail GOP IT mastermind triggers immunity request to Ohio AG by election lawyers — ePluribus Media
  • So who is Mike Connell? — Brad Blog