Celebrities the Candidates Can Do Without

August 1, 2008— -- As celebrity ties go, Britney Spears and Paris Hilton don't rank high on your typical presidential nominee's must-have list.

We can assume then that Sen. John McCain knew what he was doing when, in a recent ad, he attempted to associate Democratic contender Sen. Barack Obama, the oft-described "rock star" of the 2008 campaign, with two women who made stepping out of a car without any underwear a national obsession.

"He's the biggest celebrity in the world," the ad's narrator intones as the screen cuts from pictures of Obama addressing a crowd in Berlin to images of Hilton and Spears. "But, is he ready to lead?"

Spears and Hilton did not actively, or even passively, endorse Obama -- it remains unknown if they even know who he is -- but McCain nevertheless drew a line connecting the poster girls for celebrity fluff to a politician who has also found his way onto the cover of the celebrity magazine Us Weekly and the entertainment program "Extra."

"It wasn't exactly a coincidence that McCain chose those particular women for that ad," said Kelli Lammie, a communications professor at the State University of New York at Albany, who studies the impact of celebrity endorsements on candidates.

"McCain is trying to make a connection there. Would you want either of them running the country? Of course not," she said. "He is trying to say Hilton and Spears are just fluff and so is Obama. He might be great at waving to cameras, but that doesn't mean he knows anything about foreign policy."

Beyond simply comparing Obama with the lightweight celebrities, some have seen the ads as racially tinged, said Albert May, a professor of media and public affairs at George Washington University.

Celebrities sometimes bring a candidate much-needed attention. Oprah Winfrey helped draw 30,000 people to an Obama rally in South Carolina in December, and former Gov. Mike Huckabee, R- Ark., made his endorsement by Chuck Norris a cornerstone of his ad campaign.

"My plan to secure the border? Two words," Huckabee joked in an ad early on in the Republican primary. "Chuck Norris."

Another reason to keep celebrities around? Money.

In the primaries, Barbara Streisand gave $2,300 each to Democrats Sen. Hillary Clinton, former Sen. John Edwards and Obama. George Clooney also wrote a $2,300 check to Obama.

McCain got that same amount from both Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer and "Saturday Night Live" skipper Lorne Michaels.

But not all celebrities are created equal, and while you can't hold a candidate responsible for every crackpot, crackhead, miscreant or moron who pins a button to his lapel, Americans are paying attention. And there are some stars and socialites the candidates would prefer to have nothing to do with.