Taking on Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) worldwide popularity, the campaign of GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) on Tuesday said having “more fans than Paris Hilton” is not a qualification to be president.

Taking on Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) worldwide popularity, the campaign of GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) on Tuesday said having “more fans than Paris Hilton” is not a qualification to be president.

“I’ll be the first one to admit that Barack Obama has become a global celebrity,” McCain campaign manager Rick Davis said on MSNBC, adding that the Democrat “has more fans across the world than Paris Hilton.”

McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds echoed those remarks, saying there is “no question that he’s [an] international celebrity.” Bounds, appearing on Fox News, added, “There’s something very special about the way he presents himself and the way that people react to him, particularly Germans.”

But while the Arizona Republican’s camp was congratulating Obama for achieving star status, it insisted that celebrity is not a qualification to become president.

“He’s not the first politician to go over there, he is just the first politician with fans,” Davis said. “John McCain goes to Berlin every year to talk to a series of defense ministers.

“He talks about substance, he pushes back on the Russians, he talks about NATO, he talks about Afghanistan,” Davis added. “He doesn’t go there and give a flowery speech that has no real substance and have 200,000 people [attend].”