John McCain and The Worst Campaign Ad Ever

Facing a strong challenge from the political right by way of former Congressman J.D. Hayworth, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) is doing his best to appear as conservative as possible.

Apparently, his best is perhaps the worst, most ineffectual, pandering campaign ad ever — that just happens to carry a message he personally mocked in a national magazine interview only three years ago.

Just watch:

“Senator, you’re one of us”? Is he Serious?

Here’s what McCain told Vanity Fair in 2007:

[...] in front of an audience of more sympathetic businessmen, McCain had been asked how debate over the immigration bill was playing politically. “In the short term, it probably galvanizes our base,” he said. “In the long term, if you alienate the Hispanics, you’ll pay a heavy price.” Then he added, unable to help himself, “By the way, I think the fence is least effective. But I’ll build the goddamned fence if they want it.”

He added, “I’m willing to negotiate anything.”

Here’s what McCain said in 2006, noted by MSNBC:

There are over 11 million people in this country illegally. They harvest our crops, tend our gardens, work in our restaurants, care for our children, clean our homes. They came as others before them came, to grasp the lowest rung of the American ladder of opportunity, to work the jobs others won’t, and by virtue of their own industry and desire, to rise and build better lives for their families and a better America. That is our history, Mr. President. We are not a tribe. We are not an ethnic conclave. We are a nation of immigrants, and that distinction has been essential to our greatness.

But yeah, he’s “one of us.”

… “Us,” of course, meaning that old guard of flat-tops whose waning political power has been reduced to passing a flatly unconstitutional, hate-based measure (I refuse to call it “law”) of institutionalized discrimination against people of differing skin pigments. Their melanin-mania is what McCain appeals to here and he should rightly pay a severe political price for it if he manages to trump his Republican challenger in August’s primary.

The ad, which strikes me as bordering on Tim and Eric levels of absurdity, was created by one Fred Davis, arguably the comedy duo’s singular alter-ego in the politics sphere. He’s the guy who created the “Demon Sheep” viral ad for California politico and former HP executive Carly Fiorina in the midst a tough primary battle. His creation was so bizarre, Democrats could only combat it by mockery, hoisting an unofficial sequel that slams Fiorina and promising a part-three, aimed at California Assemblyman Chuck DeVore.

Their Web site is like the dream-skim residue on your frontal lobe, left in the final moments of a bizarrely anthropomorphic nightmare. The Dark Knight was right: escalation is very much alive in all forms of competition, let alone power politics.

Here’s the original “Demon Sheep” ad — and just think of John McCain laughing through the whole thing, ’cause it was apparently enough to get Davis on with the man who was almost president.

And just because it seems to fit, here’s a scene from Tommy Wiseau’s The Room.