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The Mccain Ad In South Florida

Contemplating Eve's (and Rick Perlstein's) analogy between the McCain "Celeb" ad and Leni Riefenstahl's greatest hits, it occurs to me that the similarities won't be lost on many elderly Jews in South Florida. My late grandfather, a member of this species, had a habit of noting that any semi-charismatic speaker who drew a crowd of more than a few dozen reminded him of Hitler. (He was especially adamant after watching Jesse Jackson address the 1988 Democratic convention.) And while I'd hate to impute my grandfather's worldview to all Jews of a certain generation and locale, it's worth noting that I'd heard similar things from friends of his and other relatives in this cohort.

I'm not sure the McCain campaign designed the ad with this in mind (though Perlstein's observation about camera angles does make you wonder), but I doubt they'll be upset if that's the upshot.

--Noam Scheiber