Are we finally ready to laugh at the Vietnam War? And does this say anything about Barack Obama’s chances in November?

Ben Stiller’s Vietnam/Hollywood spoof Tropic Thunder has been the No. 1 movie for the past two weekends. Stiller nimbly eviscerates whiny stars, pretentious directors with too much “vision,” contract-obsessed agents and bloviating studio heads who love to bathe in their own power. Along the way, (and in the press he’s done for Tropic Thunder,” he ridicules the notion that actors can have as true a war experience during a week-long “boot camp” as actual soldiers during a year-long tour of duty.

In Thunder, we have a movie that spoofs Hollywood, and also, by my count, the first true spoof of the Vietnam War. Granted, Tropic Thunder is not “Top Secret!” or any other Zucker/Abrahams masterpiece. But as Stiller gets shot in the back and collapses to his knees with his arms outstretched, we know exactly what Oliver Stone movie we should be recalling (certainly not “Alexander”).

Comedies like Good Morning, Vietnam have used the country as a backdrop before, but the emotional message has always been serious. (And who can do dramedy better than the star of “Patch Adams”?) Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H was widely seen as a commentary on the on-going Vietnam War, but it used the Korean War as its foundation.

We’ve started poking fun at movies made about a war that started over a generation ago, and the whole debate over our politicians’ service in said war simply doesn’t hold as much weight as it once did.

Bill Clinton struggled to avoid the label “draft-dodger” throughout his campaigns for president. George W. Bush has repeatedly needed to defend his National Guard service. John Kerry was supposedly an ideal candidate because of his actual service in Vietnam, but even that became a liability. But with Barack Obama, his age has definitively answered any question critics can bring. You aren’t going to be fighting a war in South Asia when you’re a pre-teen.

As Americans’ concerns have grown increasingly more domestic in the past months, “John McCain, decorated war hero,” has less of a nice ring to it. When the only current mention of the war during which you were a POW comes from a Hollywood spoof movie, it’s pretty clear you may need new talking points.

We’re ready to laugh at Vietnam, and our politicians are young enough to have missed fighting in it. McCain, your swift boat has sailed.