One of the hallmarks of the global digital age is that anyone with a computer can participate in the political debate. That can be wonderful. Or it can be appalling, like the new video Madonna is showing on her tour.
It shows a montage of genocide (a Nazi death camp, Asian and African killing fields) and faces of evil and oppression (Adolf Hitler, Ayatollah Khomeini, Robert Mugabe). Then it cuts to Mike Huckabee, who ran for the Republican nomination, and Senator John McCain, who just became the official Republican nominee.
This year’s presidential campaign has already been marked by far too much negative advertising . It was outrageous when Mr. McCain’s campaign juxtaposed his Democratic opponent, Senator Barack Obama, with Paris Hilton and Britney Spears as part of its effort to denigrate him as a person .
Madonna’s video is immeasurably worse. If she thought she was helping Mr. Obama by juxtaposing his image with that of Gandhi and Bono, she was wrong.
Tucker Bounds, a McCain spokesman, was exactly right when he called the video “outrageous” and “unacceptable.” Mr. Obama’s team also swiftly denounced it. But it was a distressing sign of how low the political debate has gotten this year that neither side could resist using the moment to hurl more mud.
“It clearly shows that when it comes to supporting Barack Obama, his fellow worldwide celebrities refuse to consider any smear or attack off limits,” added Mr. Bounds. And an Obama spokesman, Tommy Vietor, could not resist his own gratuitous jab. “We hope that John Mc- Cain will offer a similar condemnation as his allies increasingly practice sleazy Swift boat tactics,” he said.
At least the song Madonna performs in the video was aptly named: Get Stupid.”