Case in point....

Yesterday I wrote what I consider to be a politically impartial post about how I'm disgusted with these young celebrities filming videos that appear to encourage young voters to blindly vote for Barack Obama. I insisted that this wasn't a political stance, and that I would have felt this way no matter which candidate the flames were directed at. I also boldly stated that I would have felt the same way even if the love of my life, Rachel Bilson, was involved in the video.

Well, it's not Rachel Bilson, but another one of my crushes, Hayden Panettiere, recently filmed a PSA-like video, sarcastically encouraging people to vote for John McCain. Here's the video:

See more Hayden Panettiere videos at Funny or Die

I'll say this: I find this slightly less offensive than the previous video I posted, because she did, at the very least, ATTEMPT to provide reasons why people shouldn't vote for him. They were stupid reasons, but at least she tried. And the "nobody fucks with McCain" with a big smile on her face was pretty funny.

But, again, overall it was a moronic video. I am SO not a fan of this ultra PC, super sensitive society we live in, but what the hell was up with the age discrimination. She so boldly tells people not to vote for McCain "because he's old." I don't doubt that the comment had its tongue firmly in its cheek, but can you imagine the outcry if somebody had said -- even jokingly -- "don't vote for Obama, because he's black"??? And considering the fact that her boyfriend is, like, 12 years her senior, her anti-old comments seem especially misplaced.

I especially hate her "a vote for John McCain is a vote AGAINST change" argument. What does that even mean? McCain will get us in another war, you say? Nice of you to completely disregard that people in Obama's very party criticized him for the comments he made last year about taking military action in Pakistan.

And what was the deal with her comment about McCain allegedly having an affair with a lobbyist? To suggest that McCain has an unsavory relationship with lobbyists is no better than accusing Obama of being associated with terrorists. And if we want to get personal, how about we talk about Hayden's dad supposedly beating up on her mom? No good?

Again, this isn't a John McCain/Barack Obama thing. This isn't even about celebrity endorsements (again, they have every right to express their opinions). This is about asinine, shallow videos that contain no information whatsoever, and celebrities using their influence to encourage impressionable (and mostly uninformed) young voters to support their candidate. And they're not even bothering to do it with concrete and substantial data. I find that insulting. And, considering that it probably works, pretty tragic.


In fact, there is an article on CNN.com that discusses the false accusations that are smeared all over the Internet. I encourage everybody to read it:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/15/internet.rumors/index.html