Swampland - TIME.com

Answer: Free Media

Question: What was the enormous upside to John McCain's decision to compare Barack Obama with Paris Hilton and Britney Spears?

Still have doubts? Click here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and I could go on. Even counting those voters on vacation, what's your guess for the percentage of Americans who have heard that McCain compared Obama to Spears and Hilton? Now how many of those same people, not to mention you Swampland readers, can tell me what the Lexington Project is? Perhaps McCain should have called it the "Paris Hilton Project."

Of course, there is a downside to such obvious tactics--they are not exactly dignified or, um, presidential. But my guess is Crystal City slept quite well last night.

UPDATE: Per Jon Martin: "Beating out all the semi-porn videos and some Miley Cyrus riff, John McCain's 'Celeb' ad was the most viewed video on YouTube this week. The tally as of Friday at 4:15: 1,271,140 views. And one can only imagine how many more people saw it on cable and network TV."


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About Swampland

Joe Klein

Joe Klein is TIME's political columnist and author of six books, most recently Politics Lost. His weekly TIME column, "In the Arena," covers national and international affairs. In 2004 he won the National Headliner Award for best magazine column. Read more

Karen Tumulty

Senior Writer Karen Tumulty has been TIME's National Political Correspondent since 2001, and has also covered the White House and Congress for the magazine. A native of San Antonio, she is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and Harvard Business School, where her career choice has significantly lowered the average salary of her graduating class. But she gets lots of free magazines. Read more

Jay Newton-Small

Jay Newton-Small Jay Newton-Small covers politics for TIME. She has covered the Bush 43 White House and also Congress from the DeLay era to the present. And, yes, despite the misleading name SHE is a she. Read more

Michael Scherer

Michael Scherer is a correspondent in TIME's Washington bureau covering the 2008 presidential campaign. He has worked national assignments for Mother Jones magazine and Salon.com. Read more

Amy Sullivan

Amy Sullivan is a senior editor at TIME magazine, and author of the book The Party Faithful: How and Why Democrats are Closing the God Gap (Scribner, 2008). A Michigan native, she holds degrees from the University of Michigan and Harvard Divinity School. She writes about religion and politics for TIME, but no longer answers to the name "Bible Girl." Read more

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