Obama to McCain: "Is That Really the Best You Can Come Up With?"

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/07/obama-asks-mcca.html

At a town hall meeting on energy in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, this afternoon, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, addressed the new TV ad offered from his opponent, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., which insinuates that Obama is little more than a paparazzi-pursued media-created celebrity a la Paris Hilton and Britney Spears.

The ad, titled "Celeb," uses images of the two blonde starlets.

"Given the seriousness of the issues, you’d think we could have a serious debate," Obama said. "But so far, all we've been hearing about is Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. I mean, I do have to ask my opponent, is that the best you can come up with? Is that really what this election is about? Is that what is worthy of the American people?"

The crowd yelled: "NOOOOOOOOOO."

"Even the media has pointed out that Senator John McCain -- who started off talking about running an honorable campaign -- has fallen back on predictable political attacks and demonstrably false statements. But here’s the problem. All of those negative ads spending all this time talking about me, instead of talking about what he's going to do, that's not going to lower your gas prices…

"It's politics as a game," Obama said. "But the time for game-playing is over. That's why I'm running for President of the United States of America."