By Holly Bailey 

Is John McCain out of touch with... pop culture?

The Arizona senator's campaign is up this afternoon with a new ad called "Celeb," which dings Barack Obama for, you guessed it, being more of an international celebrity than a credible Commander in Chief. The ad highlights Obama's opposition to offshore oil drilling and questions his energy policies, but the real attention-getter is film of Obama juxtaposed with red carpet footage of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, a pair of Hollywood starlets who don't exactly have the most stellar reputations. Hilton, of course, briefly went to jail for drunk driving, and Spears had a widely publicized breakdown that culminated in a brief stay at the UCLA psych ward earlier this year.

So is the McCain campaign trying to equate Obama to a hotel heiress with a best-selling sex tape and a fading pop star who seems to truly dislike wearing underwear in public? Why no, the campaign innocently insists. In a conference call this morning with reporters, McCain manager Rick Davis said they included Britney and Paris in the ad only because "in our estimation" they are the two biggest celebrities in the world. "Britney is first, Paris came in second and third was Barack," Davis said. "Will people think of this as negative advertising? Look, it's the most entertaining thing I've seen on TV in a while. I wouldn't anticipate anything about this being negative."

The only problem with this argument: When was the last time Paris Hilton was on the cover of Us Weekly? Aside from a few paparazzi shots, McCain's new ad is the biggest spurt of publicity Hilton has gotten lately. After the conference call, the campaign released a memo from Davis backing up his arguments and adding a new celebrity name to the mix: Tom Cruise, whose ties to Scientology have gotten more attention than his acting roles lately. "It is beyond dispute that (Obama) has become the biggest celebrity in the world," McCain aide Steve Schmidt told reporters today. "It is a statement of fact. It is backed up by the reality of his tour around the world...The question we are proposing to the American people is this: Is he ready to lead yet?"

No surprise, the Obama campaign is attacking the ad as simply more negativity from McCain. "Oops! He did it again!" spokesman Tommy Vietor said. *Even a McCainiac agrees. This afternoon, former confidant John Weaver went on the record with Marc Ambinder of the Atlantic to call the ad a "childish" move that "diminishes" the senator. "There is legitimate mockery of a political campaign now, and it isn't at Obama's," he added. "For McCain's sake, this tomfoolery needs to stop."*

*UPDATE, 4:11 p.m.: Some smart analysis from Politico's Jonathan Martin:

The message is akin to the oft-heard line about Hilton herself: She's just famous for being famous. With Obama, the political translation is that, yes,' he's a rock star -- but does that mean you want him to lead the country?' And not just the country, but our country. It's no accident that he's called "the biggest celebrity in the world" and portrayed overseas. Nor is it incidental that he's described as being for more "foreign oil" "That's the real Obama," the ad closes.

"Celeb" represents a risk for McCain. His campaign seems to have made a conscious decision to use Obama's enormous appeal against him, with the hope that Americans will ultimately vote for the more familiar and less glamorous option. But by acknowledging Obamamania, they also reinforce the sense that the young Democrat has created an unprecedented and perhaps historic movement. It's quite a concession from somebody who himself was once a media darling and is close to a household name. They're trying to inflate Obama to tear him down -- but they also could just enhance his stature and send more buzz, money and supporters his way.