Except that Paris H is now all over the innernets again, and giving the celeb meme a pair of sleek and swift legs. Very unhelpful.

Maybe the Paris Hilton ad is a negative. Maybe. It seems just as likely to me that people will laugh at it, which might make McCain's ad look as foolish as it was. I'm just saying that, at the very least, it could go either way.

That said, I think Noam has it right about Obama's tone. He has to be aggressive without seeming as angry and desperate as McCain. It's most important that he be direct and on-point, demonstrating that he knows what the score is and that he can deliver results for people who need them.

Au contraire, tep -- PH's response video (a textbook lesson in comic timing, by the way) eviscerates McCain and his ad like one of those old-style contraptions for taking the center out of a grapefruit prior to segmenting it.

And the touch about the VP slot was priceless, too.

I lovedd the line, because it can be used again and again. Gas tax holiday, creationism, global warming sceptics, the line just keep on giving. And delivered with just enough lightness and just enough sting to really work...

I am impressed with old PH, she - as we say in So Cal - totally dogged McCain, the reviews are universal on that one.  Thanks girlfriend.

Loved the "see you at the debates bitches" line too.  SNAP.

I look forward to the parodies of this ad that will roll in momentarily as well.  McCain did us a huge favor with this ad.  Thanks Senator!  

Paris Hilton's ad opens with about eight or so great visual knocks on McCain, remember. It's a wash, tep. If anything, it deflates McCain, gravitas-wise. Paris killed it, btw.

Actually, what I liked most about Obama's response is *it had nothing to do with race.*  I've been worried about the McCain ad being a dog whistle--not a dog-whistle to white racists, but to self-righteous liberals, who rose to the bait in their highest dudgeon and put all the humorlessness and condescension of liberalism at its worst on bald display.  Obama slipped into that mode briefly last week, but this hits it right.  Call someone a racist and you give him a license to play the PC victim; call someone silly, and--if it's true--he looks silly.

This McCain guy can be made a fool of by Paris Freaking Hilton, and he wants to be president? If Paris can punk him, Putin and Ahmadinejad will eat him for breakfast and shit him out before lunch.

The Paris Hilton ad is very funny.

Not enough to say it at a Town Hall - they have to do an Ad to drive the Media story.

Paris H "making a fool of" anyone aside from maybe her bf's fluffer is a wee bit of a stretch. methinks.

Also, such quaint language: "punk", "sh*t him out for lunch"...  Exhibit C in the downward slide of TNR.com into blogworld's vulgarity and shrillness.

Wow. The other day, AaronBBrown shared his tourette-ish fantasies on Marty's blog about hacking someone to pieces, now a Rabelaisan riff about ingestion and excretion. There seems to be a correlation between increasingly violent potty language and Obama's slide in the polls. Only going to get worse as November nears, alas.

TNR, maybe it's time for moderators? At least to staunch these smelly little fantasies of bullying and violence?

" I'd guess this resonates more than usual after eight years of George W. Bush. And Obama delivered the riff in the right tone--not angry or righteous but bemused: "This is the kind of thing they do, I don't understand it...""

Agreed Noam, that's how I started my response to MIke below, but decided it was too wonky for a response that needed some more snark.

Wandrey - is that Phyllis Diller bikini what passes for cool these days, or did one of Paris's "girlfriends" in the clink lend it to her? I agree that your "dog" metaphor is apt, though I was thinnking more of those rather sad and unsightly lines appearing under Paris's eyes. Maybe she can score enough in AdSense revenues for a jaunt to the botox dox.

Before the snarkest kicks in, might I observe that it's kind of pathetic to have to be defended by the likes of Paris Hilton and Gwynneth Maman-de-Pomme? I have a feeling that her pot/kettle-ish slip about wrinkles is going to score McCain more than a few thousand votes among older Dems in in critical swing districts in SE Ohio and elsewhere.

Some people, mainly wiser older ones, think that wrinkles are something you earn, a badge of honor. Like battle scars.

Maybe we're underestimating her. Perhaps she's one of Obama's Rangers, er, Pioneers, I mean "bundlers," those gazillionaires with a vested interest in pending legislation whom the reform candidate has been assiduously courting ever since 2004. From today's NYT article that reports what most of the more rational, skeptical observers perceived at least a year ago: www.nytimes.com/.../06bundlers.html

"Behind those larger donations is a phalanx of more than 500 Obama “bundlers,” fund-raisers who have each collected contributions totaling $50,000 or more. Many of the bundlers come from industries with critical interests in Washington. Nearly three dozen of the bundlers have raised more than $500,000 each, including more than a half-dozen who have passed the $1 million mark and one or two who have exceeded $2 million, according to interviews with fund-raisers.

"While his campaign has cited its volume of small donations as a rationale for his decision to opt out of public financing for the general election, Mr. Obama has worked to build a network of big-dollar supporters from the time he began contemplating a run for the United States Senate. He tapped into well-connected people in Chicago prior to the 2004 Senate race, and once elected, set out across the country starting to cultivate some of his party’s most influential money collectors.

"He courted them with the savvy of a veteran politician, through phone calls, meals and one-on-one meetings; he wrote thank-you cards and remembered birthdays; he sent them autographed copies of his book and doted on their children.

"The fruits of his efforts have put Mr. Obama’s major donors on a pace that almost rivals the $147 million raised by President Bush’s network of Pioneers and Rangers in contributions of $1,000 or larger during the 2004 primary season.

"Given his decision not to accept public financing, Mr. Obama is counting on his bundlers to help him raise $300 million for his general-election campaign and another $180 million for the Democratic National Committee.

"An analysis of campaign finance records shows that about two-thirds of his bundlers are concentrated in four major industries: law, securities and investments, real estate and entertainment. Lawyers make up the largest group, numbering roughly 130, with many of them working for firms that also have lobbying arms. At least 100 Obama bundlers are top executives or brokers from investment businesses: nearly two dozen work for financial titans

[T2YOU note:  perhaps a sly ironic dig by the NYT author but of course these are EX-"titans" begging for funds from Riyadh and Singapore, the jokers whose incompetence and deception have nearly cratered this nation's financial system and who are now desperately lobbying Congress and, they hope, the presumptive president for the next gazillion-dollar Wall Street bailout at Main Street's expense...]

"... like Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs or Citigroup. About 40 others come from the real estate industry...."

Wow, Tep, thank God you weighed in before the snarkiness became overwhelming. LOL. Gwyneth maman-de-pomme? No, that's not snarky at all.

---

But when I saw this title I assumed this was a post about Obama's handling of the pledge of allegiance thing. See here:

www.youtube.com/watch

mice - why so quiet on my post?

Don't tell us you're a "bundler"? Are you in real estate?

LOL, Tep, I wish I was in real estate. Sadly, I'm a humble academic who doesn't even work in academia. I'm also legally prevented from donating anything to the Obama campaign, other than my humble musings on the plank and the stump.

Obama raises a lot of money. And a sizable chunk of it is from "large" donors. Is that news?

Wandrey.  Love your post!!!!!!  Our girl hit it right on.  She scored some major respect for all hot, young, ditzy blondes.  Maybe I should return to those blonde highlights.  NOT!!!!!

Miccelf, I would have pegged you for a child psychologist.  You have such a nice, compassionate and thoughtful manner  

tep -- McCain, not Obama, was the one who used Paris Hilton in his ad, suggesting by association that Obama was some kind of ditzy "celebrity" without anything to contribute.  Obama is not being defended by PH in her film.  Rather, McCain is being justifiably taken to task for using real people as if they were cartoon characters whose copyright had passed, and the result can be to have the real person come to life and say, hey, wait a minute . . . !

To that extent, it's a funny and appropriate response, and your complete and utter absence of a sense of humor is disturbing.  You can have a laugh without changing your opinion, you know.

I don't know if you genuinely believe that McCain has ideas for tackling the medium-term and long-term energy crisis, but maybe you do believe that.  I'm a little sorry, if that's now the case, because once you were basically a Democrat who wanted a different emphasis from Obama's, whereas now you seem to be eaten up with animosity and willing to believe every last bottom-of-the-barrell accusation from the other side.

What Irony said.

Teppie:

"Some people, mainly wiser older ones, think that wrinkles are something you earn, a badge of honor. Like battle scars."

As I read these lines, it reminded me of the Lee J. Cobb character in "Twelve Angry Men", his animosity to the young accused kid, his bemoaning of the fact that youngsters don't respect their elders anymore, and the final scene, when he breaks down ...

As Freud said, sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar.  And sometimes, wrinkles are a sign of hard living, too much time in the sun, too much smoking, bad genes and shere, simple, old age that, frankly, in itself is no ground for more or less respect due any human being.  I have been told by way too many ignorant fools from Ye Olde Countrie who had never set foot outside their own city and who knew sweet bugger all about the world, "you're too young and inexperienced to understand" ... gravity, relativity, computers, georgraphy, science, cooking ... nah.  Don't, please have enough intellectual honest and enough respect for the rest of us not to trot out this tires old trope of "McCain's age deserves respect."  

Irony, Tep is trotting out two contradictory lines, that the Hilton ad will achieve "innernet" saturation hurting Obama and that the idiots who actually refer to the internet as the "innernet" you know, people like John McCain, actually know how to navigate the web to watch it. I don't know the demographics but I am sure the vast majority of people who have watched the ad weren't McCain Republicans. Of course the ad was helpful, even if Faux tries to run with it, they only have so much broadcast time to run it. And besides, most people who watch Faux are predisposed to be against Obama anyway.

Tammy, I am in fact a clinical psychologist, but do research rather than clinical work. My area of research is on child welfare, broadly speaking. So, even though you probably were being ironic (i am probably the opposite of thoughtful/compassionate), you were pretty close to the truth.

Icarus - don't tell us you're a bundler too?

[sing] "I"m a bundler, you're a bundler, wouldn'tcha like to be a bundler too (Doctor KoolAid, driiiink Doctor KoolAid...)"

Icarus - re wrinkles and cigars, I'd guess that Jeune Paris' wrinkles are due to too many ciggies in all the wrong places.

Miccelf.  I knew it.  And I was NOT being ironic.  I did some child abuse research in grad school.  We are kindred spirits!!  

Jeez, Tep. Dislike Obama all you like, but there's no need to let your usually high standards for posting go by the wayside.

The notion that anyone who disagrees with your assessment of Obama's chances (not his political character/value even, just his chances) must necessarily be a bundler for him and/or "drunk the koolaid" is really bush league. You can do better.

Tep: jacobtl called, he wants his lines of argument back.

Tep, I'll see your Obama's Handlers jibberish and raise you McCain's Handler with suspect ties to Big Oil and the Middle East.

www.washingtonpost.com/.../AR2008080503502.html

Some of my favorites:

Most had never given a political contribution before being contacted by Sargeant or his associates. Most said they have never voiced much interest in politics. And in several instances, they had never registered to vote. And yet, records show, some families have ponied up as much as $18,400 for various candidates between December and March.

"I have a lot of Arab business partners. I do a lot of business in the Middle East. I've got a lot of friends," Sargeant said in a telephone interview yesterday. "I ask my friends to support candidates that I think are worthy of supporting. They usually come through for me."

Sargeant's business relationships, and the work they perform together, occur away from the public eye. His firm, International Oil Trading Co. (IOTC), holds several lucrative contracts with the Defense Department to carry fuel to the U.S. military in Iraq.

Nothing like being lectured on 'potty language' and decorum by a guy who talks about a "fluffer" and then posts eight (and counting!) times in a thread about PARIS HILTON.

I don't know why everyone is against bundling.  It's pretty much the only way to have fun if you're an Amish teenager.

I'm shocked, shocked to find out that Obama is raising money to fight his campaign.  I now see the light, and I now see what tep and other courageous voices have been saying.  So I call out, "O ye deluded Obama supporters, do you not know that he who stands before you is a (so far successful) politician, and not repeat not the messiah?"

Hello.  What?  You did?  For real?  Oh, ok.  Thanks.

Um . . . seems they knew it already.

Woody: Tep is channelling LiberalReformer now (where the hell is he?): say something derogatory to someone; when hit back, assume a position of an injured victim; when apologised to out of decency, turn around and slam harder and lower.

Come to think of it, sounds like the McCain campaign.

Tep: considering what you think of bundlers (and then calling me one), and given your evident disdain for anything I have to say on the subject of Obama or McCain - not just disagreement but disdain - I think there is little point in going back and forth on this issue.  Let's agree to disagree, and I promise never again to refer to anything you have to say about Obama.  

Now, now, ick, no need to get huffy - as he Baryshnikov character puts it in Turning Point, "Please to relax. Is joke."

Here's a deal: I'll lighten up, and confine my attacks to amused, gently ironic, skeptical asides from behind a raised teacup if you'll simply respect the non-snark, serious points I make, like the one about Obama's obvious coziness with our nation's corrupt and destructive financial rentier class.

In the interests of comity and good cheer I'd promise to withdraw these points altogether but hey, eppur si muovo, no can do. However,  I'll definitely be nice from here on out. Does that work? Pax vobiscum, t

Woody - just curious, why is "out" necessary? How does one "sh*t something _in_?" Doesn't the concept of excretion already preclude this?

This is one of those irregular verbs isn't it: "I joke, you hurl childish insults." ;-) I'm

"Obama's obvious coziness with our nation's corrupt and destructive financial rentier class."

I was puzzled by the Jim Johnson choice, but he's out.  To defeat Republicans, you have to have resources.  I'd rather have a well-funded candidate hitting McCain with everything he's got, than one who is hampered by resources constraints.

". . . if you'll simply respect the non-snark, serious points I make, like the one about Obama's obvious coziness with our nation's corrupt and destructive financial rentier class."

But, tep, what is the serious point?  Is it

A.  That Obama is being dishonest/disingenuous when his campaign foregrounds the small contributors and downplays the big ones?

B.  That Obama is doing something that other politicians running for major office don't do?

C.  That Obama supporters don't grasp that this is the way that he operates (= they are blinded by idealism)?

D.  That Obama's courting of big donors neutralizes any credit he gets for inspiring millions of small donors?

E.  That McCain is cleaner in respect of "coziness" than Obama?

Except for A (which I'd concede), all the others, it seems to me, are a clear "no."  There are a number of different things going on here, and some of them are of the "omigod he's a politician!" variety, that might disillusion a starry-eyed teenage supporter but not an adult.  Neither are they a surprise.  I recall, for example, an article in the NYT about nine or ten months ago that detailed Obama's visits among the Wall St young broker set in those rich Connecticut commuter towns -- it didn't exactly warrant a folk song being written about it, but it showed his ability to walk a line between canvassing support and cozy pandering.  I see no evidence that he does the latter, and if someone sent me a large campaign donation, yeah, I'd remember their kid's birthday.

In general, though, I find many criticisms of Obama to be justified and indeed welcome -- the Democratic Party, for good or ill, stages more internal freedom and disagreement than the lockstep Republicans -- but it's nothing short of kooky to assert seriously that Obama somehow represents every negative thing about American politics when he has so clearly, and for so many people, sketched out a way out of our current system failure on issues from foreign policy to energy to health care.  Exactly the issues for which John McCain has zero new ideas.  Or maybe I've been missing something -- in which case, I'd be happy to be enlightened.

And speaking for myself, I want to win in November.  That's the bottom line.  So criticism should be directed to that end, imo.  There are many things Obama should be doing better, and some things he's done very well, but criticism that is mainly fantasy and projection is little different from the "he's a Muslim" BS on the nuttier edge of the electorate.

My copy editor was out when I posted that, or we'd have discussed it. But I think that while an argument could be made that the word is unnecessary there, "out" is commonly paired up with The Word You Feel Must Be Asterisked to the point of being common vernacular. The sentence would still be logically and grammatically correct without it, but I think the phrase would lose something and it would take a reader an extra beat to get the gist of the statement.

What I want to know is why PH's boyfriend needs a fluffer.

ick - A and C, that's all. McC's no saint, either.

Wood - probably because, seen from the side she's practically invisible. Une femme platte.

tep -- that wasn't icarus, that was me.

Tep, you're right, McCain's no saint.  As between the two - two nonsaints - and all things being equal, I reject the one who actively campaigned to get George Bush elected, twice, and who's proud of that achievement.  

All things are not equal.  McCain is a conservative loon who will appoint other Scalias, and he has so far conducted himself with enough cynicism to shame even Rove.  And yes, Obama inspires - he inspires even when he panders - and he is taking the gospel of personal responsibility and making it relevant.  If I needed additional reasons, there they are.  

So "C" is inapplicable, at least to me.

Talking about Jujitsu ... Obama on McCain's retraction of his comments on the airguage:

"It will be interesting to watch this debate between John McCain and John McCain."

Another clever line. His campaign's on a roll.

Tep: when does not respond, you complain he can't respond; when does, you snark.  Whatever credibility you have on this issue is already lost, the question is why you persist.

I'm leapfrogging over tep here, and responding to the original post if anyone's still here:

Obama has been attacked as a lightweight celebrity, and can invoke "experts" all he wants. Stop being afraid of his being Kerrified. Kerry had no charisma, and that's the sad truth, and Obama doesn't have that problem. ANd, after Bush, experts and expertise and eggheads are cool again.

"His campaign's on a roll."

At least it's not on geritol...

ick - that wasn't snark! It was a good line. Sheesh, have a drink, amoebo. I mean, amigo.