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Celebrity status boosts Obama fundraising

In a video sent to donors on Friday, David Plouffe, Barack Obama’s campaign manager, claimed that the Senator received 100,000 contributions in the wake of a new McCain campaign ad portraying Obama as an out-of-touch celebrity. The ad, which juxtaposes images of Obama against images of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, along with calling Obama the “biggest celebrity in the world,” drew ire from the Obama campaign. Plouffe told donors that, of the 100,000 contributions they received on Thursday, over 1/3rd were from first-time donors.

Realizing that the celebrity news industry generates billions of dollars annually and that the word “celebrity” generally carries a positive connotation, the McCain camp plans to release a new ad next week calling the Senator the “biggest Reality TV star in the world” and featuring Obama arguing with a roommate over a pile of dirty dishes.

Wal-Mart warns against Democratic victory

Wal-Mart announced on Friday that it has warned managers of its US stores about the potential negative consequences of an Obama presidency. Executives of the retail chain told attendees of meetings in seven states that, if passed, the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill co-sponsored by Barack Obama that aims to reduce the barriers to unionization by workers, would burden workers with hefty union dues and force Wal-Mart to cut jobs.

While Wal-Mart executives denied explicitly telling its employees how to vote in the meetings, it did indicate that it would be expanding its Greeter team with new recruits from the Bentonville Maximum Security Prison chapter of the Aryan Brotherhood.

Obama condemns new Ludacris song

Barack Obama’s campaign has publicly condemned a new song by rapper Ludacris that alludes to the Senator’s impending election as president and uses harsh language to disparage his political opponents. In ”Politics as Usual,” Ludacris calls President Bush “mentally handicapped” and “the worst of all 43 presidents.” Aiming the vitriol towards McCain, Ludacris says the presumptive Republican nominee “doesn’t belong in any chair unless he’s paralyzed.” And, perhaps most politically poignant, Ludacris claims that Hillary “is irrelevant.”

The Obama camp was quick to dismiss the rapper’s expletive-laced position statement, calling it “outrageously offensive.” When told about Obama’s response, Ludacris stated that he was simply following the example set by Eddie Murphy’s 1983 anti-Mondale television special, Delirious.

Obama agrees to the three debates

Presidential Candidate Barack Obama submitted a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates on Saturday accepting their outline for three presidential debates and one vice presidential debate before the November 4th election. The debates will all take place after both parties’ national conventions and will be held at colleges across the country. The letter did not address any additional policy discussions between Obama and McCain, whereas McCain proposed in June to hold up to 10 town hall meetings before the first convention.

Obama’s critics cite his reluctance to prove his presidential mettle through more debates as proof that he is unfit to lead the country. Obama’s supporters, however, have defended Obama’s decision by pointing to McCain’s obvious advantage in Lincoln-Douglas style debating: he learned his technique directly from Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas.