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Video: McCain's "celebrity" attack ad

A vengeful Paris Hilton thrust herself into the US presidential race yesterday, issuing a sharp rebuttal to the “wrinkly, white-haired” John McCain for using her image in an attack advertisement last week.

Ms Hilton, the socialite and hotel heiress, put on a swimsuit to reject the Republican's comparison of her — and the singer Britney Spears — to Barack Obama.

Mr McCain's campaign commercial suggested that the Democrat was nothing more than a celebrity unfit to lead America.

Mr McCain's advertisement generated enormous publicity and, like most attack advertisements, appears to have worked: Mr Obama's poll lead has disappeared.

Yet the Republican was also given warning that the commercial might come back to haunt him — and Ms Hilton is trying to fulfil the prophecy by focusing on his age.

She released a video on the internet, which was picked up by TV channels.

Reclining on a sun lounger in a skimpy leopard-print swimsuit, the 27-year-old says: “Hey America, I'm Paris Hilton and I'm a celebrity too. Only I'm not from the olden days and I'm not promising change like the other guy. I'm just hot!”

She adds: “But then that wrinkly white-haired guy used me in his campaign ad, which means I'm running for president. So thanks for the endorsement, white-haired dude, and I want America to know I'm, like, totally ready to lead.”

A narrator, referring to Mr McCain, who turns 72 on August 29, says: “He's the oldest celebrity in the world. Like, super old. Old enough to remember when dancing was a sin, and beer was served in a bucket. But is he ready to lead?”

With the country's energy crisis dominating the campaign this week, Ms Hilton then lays out an impressive plan to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil, combining elements of the strategies outlined by Mr McCain and Mr Obama.

“Energy crisis solved,” Ms Hilton says. “I'll see you at the debates, bitches.”

This week Ms Hilton's mother, who with her husband has donated $4,600 (£2,360) to Mr McCain's campaign, called the Republican's attack on Mr Obama “a complete waste of the country's time and attention”.

Mr Obama kept up a far more aggressive tone against Mr McCain yesterday, with polls now showing them virtually tied nationally and in many battleground states.

Campaigning in Indiana with Evan Bayh, a fellow senator considered one of the front-runners for Mr Obama's vice-presidential choice, the Democratic presidential candidate had particularly harsh words for Mr McCain over the issue of car tyres.

Last week Mr Obama said that people would use less petrol if they kept their tyres properly inflated. Mr McCain has since mocked the idea, even though it is official Bush Administration advice.

He told a huge rally of motorcyclists in South Dakota that America was not going to achieve energy independence “by inflating our tyres”. His aides have even been handing out tyre gauges inscribed with “Obama's Energy Plan”.

“It's like these guys take pride in being ignorant,” Mr Obama said on Tuesday. “Instead of running ads about Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, they should go talk to some energy experts and actually make a difference.”

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton begins a campaign sweep in battleground states for Mr Obama tomorrow. But her husband Bill, in an interview on Tuesday, refused to say that Mr Obama was ready for the White House, and is still clearly fuming over his wife's primary defeat.

Asked if he believed Mr Obama was ready to be president, Mr Clinton said: “You can argue that nobody is ready to be president.”

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