Maybe he thinks we're supposed to know Rock stars by their umm, ..mid-sections?

The Senator From Days of Yore and Men of Honor (Senator from DOYAMOH) has a new presidential ad out about how before McCain was the Most Honest Man Washington's Ever Known he was inspired by the Bestest Ever Episcopal Prep School Teacher. The ad reads like a Peggy Noonan Reagan tribute, which is appropriate,, given McCain's similare age and the the fact that he's more than happy to stick with Reagan's economic policies in the midst of their most collosal failure yet.

But what's truly bizarre about the ad, is that, to set out it's theme of "heroes", the ad runs images of several examples of heroic categories - Ted Williams (athletes) , Teddy Roosevelt (presidents), and I believe Thomas Edison (inventors) ....and Headless Guitar Player as the "rockstars"?

Where to begin? First off, are rock stars really so venerated that they illuminate what we would want in a President? I realize that politicians love to innapropriately adopt songs or lyrics as their themes (i.e. the State of New Jersey adopting Born to Run as it's themesong thus becoming the "Baby this town rips the bone from your back" State; Reagan running in 1984 playing Bruce Springsteens anti-War "Born in the USA" - what not Allentown by Billy Joel?) . But is there really a rock star we'd actually trust to lead the country, not even as President but as a mere cabinet head? A middling talented one-hit wonder; a studio genius, maybe. But which department would you trust Dave Matthews or Bono to?

Secondly, it really undercuts the whole idea that rock stars "inspire us" as a Nation when you can't settle on one that is sufficiently non-controversial to actually show their face. Obviously, the Straight Talk Express wants you the voter to fill in the gaps here. But that sort of belies the fact that the US isn't one great homogenous world where coming to the aid of your equally privileged fellow Episcoal High School is all that is needed to show us what true greatness really is.

To some folks, that rock star is going to be John Lennon, but those folks aren't going to be voting for the War candidate. To others it will be Ronnie Van Zandt, but lord, dear lord, don't tell them you went to Episcopal High School, they are liable to throw their budweisers at you! To some it will be Keith Richards, and they'll probably be regular normal people, but that doesn't mean that Keith Richards has anything to do with Presidential Politics. To others it will be Abba, and those folks shouldn't be allowed to vote. Oh, wait, McCain is an Abba fan? Well, you know, he may actually not be eligible to run. So my point stands.

Thirdly, if this is how the Senator DOYAMOH is going to try to reach out to the "kids" as it were, well, he's not going to reach out to them by not having a preference. If he picked Ryan Adams, Bono or well, Keith Richards, (i'm guessing Kanye West is out, and Jeff Tweedy is already an Obama guy), then at least we'd know where he stood. But instead, it looks like McCain likes anonymous pictures of rock stars of the sort that 5th grade teachers put up in their classrooms. Next thing you know, McCain will be going up to 20 somethings and whispering - "I like to get free downloads on Napster too, and how bout that Hootie and the Blowfish!"

Finally, if your going to cover up the identity of rock stars because your so skittish about controversy, why on earth would you put a Boston Red Sox icon in the ad? Is the steroid issue the only thing about baseball McCain has paid attention to in the last 10 years? Does he really want to tick of the Yankee vote. And as long as he's spending the day trying to pass himself off as being "sorry" he voted against the MLK holiday why not put up Jackie Robinson's image to complete the pander?

But go ahead Dog Pounders, tell me if you can identify the musician, and please inform us if you make your guess based upon the guitar, the hands or well... I think you know what I think you might be able to identify him by.

SebMan