McCain shot a sneering smear the Obama camp’s way with his ‘Celeb’ ad and hit Paris Hilton in the process. Now the young debutante with the media savvy to have transformed a sex-tape revenge scheme against her into a nine-digit cult of personality is firing back.

“That wrinkly white-haired guy” is probably rueing the day. For though Paris’ ad is, as he insists attack on Obama was, “all good fun,” she pokes right at his principal weakness:

Not that he’s venal. Not that he has no integrity. Not that he lies. Not that he’s mean. Not that he’s Dubya in adult diapers.

It’s that he’s old.

That is probably the factor that has the least actual effect on his potential conduct as President, and one he can do nothing about - just as with Obama’s African-American heritage.

And like Obama’s heritage, it’s the factor that probably has the most sway over a nation that, by and large, may wear the frippery of intellectual justifications, but at its core votes with its over-larded gut.