Did Paris top McCain and Obama as Campaign ’08 enters the “Silly Season?”

Campaigns for political office are going to contain their share of light-hearted moments. They have to, or else we’d all become so depressed about how low our country has sank (if campaign rhetoric is to be believed) that we’d commit suicide before Election Day – which would result in nobody winning.

Either that, or the few survivors would vote for Paris Hilton for president as an act of political protest.

BUT I’M STILL trying to figure out the most absurd moment of the day, as Tuesday seemed to be a day loaded with campaign trivia.

Was it when a spectator/heckler tried to lambaste Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama for not making a big production out of the Pledge of Allegiance? Or was it the aftermath of when Republican opponent John McCain offered up his wife, Cindy, as a contestant for “Miss Buffalo Chip?”

Or was it the new video showing us Paris in a skimpy bathing suit telling us she’d be a better president than either McCain or Obama because she’s “hot.”

On a day when both Obama and McCain were trying to tout the concept of energy conservation, it was the moments of trivia that will be remembered – which is a sad commentary on the U.S. electorate.

OBAMA WAS IN Cleveland when he was heckled by someone who was trying to create the perception of Barack as unpatriotic because he did not lead the crowd at his rally in a mass Pledge of Allegiance.

I’ll give Obama credit for his handling of that moment – stammering uncontrollably would have given the conservative broadcast geeks some video they could have reused over and over for the next three months.

Instead, he urged the man to lead the crowd in the pledge. After that, he was able to proceed.

I must confess – I don’t trust people who try to make a production out of the Pledge of Allegiance, or the U.S. flag or any of the other symbols. All too often, those productions turn into trivializations of the high-minded ideals for which this country is supposed to stand for.

I’D RATHER JUDGE someone by the results of their actions, rather than on whether or not they wore a lapel pin of the U.S. flag or whether they had enough verve in their voice while reciting the “pledge,” which throughout the years has been amended to meet the ideals desired by the times.

In short, which version of the pledge is the legitimate version? What if a person refuses to include the words “under God” in his version – is he being true, or disrespectful, to the pledge as originally written.

I’m more offended by someone using press credentials to get into an event to make some sort of statement than I ever would be by the remarks of a political candidate. But I’m not shocked that press credentials were given to such a person – press passes issued by campaigns often offer the least significant access to a candidate. I remember one campaign event in Joliet, Ill., in 2000 where members of the general public were able to get closer to the candidate (George W. Bush) than anyone with a “press pass.”

But what about McCain, who while campaigning for the votes of hardcore motorcycle riders rallying in Sturgis, S.D., offered up his spouse for the event’s “Miss Buffalo Chip” contest.

I SUSPECT McCAIN was just trying to be “one of the boys” while campaigning among the bikers, although the thought of McCain trying to blend with the crowd at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally was just absurd. He would have done a better job if he had donned a leather jacket and chaps while campaigning for the votes of bikers, instead of offering up his blond wife as a piece of sexual meat for the biker crowd.

Now I don’t really believe McCain expects Cindy to partake in the contest, which is a parody of a beauty contest – done up with a biker sensibility. Seriously, the ladies who partake in the contest usually do so in thong bikinis.

And somehow, the ladies always manage to lose their bikini tops before the contest’s end.

Just imagine how much fun Jon Stewart would have mocking that image on the Comedy Central program, “the Daily Show,” if he were to get some accompanying video? I can already envision in my mind a comparison of that photograph from last year of Obama in swim trunks on the beaches of Hawaii, compared to a cheesecake photo of Cindy McCain.

OF COURSE, WHEN it comes to the cheesecake factor, Paris Hilton probably tops them all. That bathing suit she wore in her video response to McCain’s attempt to belittle Obama by comparing him to her left little to the imagination. She could be Miss Buffalo Chip, if she feels like making a quickie trip to South Dakota.

And listening to Hilton try to offer up her own energy plan (off-shore drilling as a short-term measure and more environmentally sound measures for the long-term) was informative in one aspect – her “plan” wasn’t any more trite than much of the rhetoric we hear coming from the legitimate political campaigns.

Despite the silliness of these incidents, I honestly believe they all fall short on the absurdity scale.

For me, the most ridiculous thing I learned on Tuesday were the results of a new poll commissioned by the Lifetime Networks. The legitimate point it found was that women prefer Obama, but some remain miffed about the defeat of Hillary Clinton to the point where they will vote against their interests to back McCain.

SERIOUSLY, 18 PERCENT of women who wanted Hillary are now voting McCain, compared to 76 percent who are backing Barack.

What bothers me about this is that people took a study that could have provided significant data toward understanding the mood of the country with regards to the upcoming election, and trivialized it.

They threw in the additional question of, “Who would you rather share a carpool with?”

That aspect has managed to steal away the attention of people who should be trying to figure out the meaning of numbers related to women by age, ethnicity or race, and how many would want Obama or McCain to have a lady as his vice presidential running mate.

FOR THE RECORD, 51 percent of those women surveyed would want to share a car ride with Obama, compared to only 31 percent who would accept a ride with McCain.

Personally, I back the 18 percent who chose “neither.”

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EDITOR’S NOTES: Should Barack Obama have to lead people in saying the Pledge of Allegiance (http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/08/05/politics/fromtheroad/entry4323650.shtml) at all his campaign events?

A moment of triviality by John McCain will live on for years to come in the annals of (http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/05/cindy-mccain-as-miss-buffalo-chip/) political rhetoric.

Forty four percent of women surveyed think a woman will be elected president in the (http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/08/barack_obama_john_mccain_women.html) next 12 years, but just under 30 percent think that woman will be Hillary R. Clinton.

Paris for president? It probably serves the “wrinkly white-haired guy” from “the olden days” right (http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/64ad536a6d) for dragging the Hilton name into the campaign rhetoric.