Everyone probably has heard about anti-Obama ads featuring Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. But leave it to The Daily Show to show an interesting angle on the story...Jon Stewart, who has had McCain on the show umpteen times and clearly has some respect and affection for the man, labeled the Hilton/Spears ad as the "Dick Move of the Week" not because it was a cheap shot at Obama but because the ad took "a nationally televised dump" on Paris Hilton, the daughter and granddaughter of McCain supporters.

From an Australian newspaper:

"According to reports, the McCain campaign office received a furious phone call from William Barron Hilton (co-chairman of the Hilton Hotel empire), who took issue with the comparison between Senator Obama and his granddaughter.

Donor records show William Hilton has given $US18,400 to the McCain campaign and $US35,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee in the past two years. Paris Hilton's father, Rick Hilton, has given $US6,900 to the McCain campaign."

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Separately, I read a excellent idea from conservative writer Bill Kristol today:

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In his convention speech, McCain could say something like this:

“I will give you a reform administration that will put politics aside to work for all Americans. I pledge to turn the page on 16 years of often petty and mean-spirited partisanship so we can tackle the big challenges we face. So I pledge that neither I nor my vice president will seek re-election. Neither I nor my vice president will spend a day, an hour, a minute campaigning or raising money — not for ourselves nor for anyone else. There will be no political office in my White House — there will be no place for a Dick Morris, or (with all due respect) a Karl Rove.”
**

Too bad this will never happen. Obama would never do it and McCain would never do it. But I think a lot of people would back a politician who said that...it's our deep-seated yearning for a Cinncinnatus or a George Washington-type figure who doesn't get intoxicated by and addicted to power; who simply wants to go back to their families and their businesses after being a successful public servant.

Think about how much time gets spent campaigning and raising money by a President and a Vice President, both for themselves and others. It's a despicable waste of time and resources when they should be focused on governing and leading and solving our nation's pressing problems.

This is one area where Mexico has it "right." In Mexico, the President gets elected to one six-year term (shockingly called a "Sixto") and cannot run again...and therefore is not consumed with polls, fundraising for the next election cycle, etc. Unfortunately, despite the good aspects of the "Sixto" system, there had been about seven decades of one-party rule in Mexico, until the 2000 election that broke the cycle. And that formerly-locked-in party did not come back to power in 2006, so Mexico finally has some good competition for the office of the President.