DISQUS

Jesus, listen to that wheezy, clotted voice. He sounds like Abe Simpson. Give the old palpitating pridemonger mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, somebody. Anybody...?

So this is how you reach right wing Christians? Impute hubris to your opponent, and then they all rush to you? Surely it's a little trickier. Tell me it is. Tell me the little string on their backs is harder to find, let alone to pull.

That's a subtle analysis, Steve.

At first glance I didn't read the Spears and Hilton cuts in that light. I saw simply banality. That's probably my hedonistic, godless antennae failing to register what the women signify to fundies.

Lost sheep. Degraded women. Spears was a right wing darling once, thought to be suitable late-night viewing for Bob Dole, before her transformation into a post-pubescent nutjob. And Hilton, sired by wealth, was emblematic of hierarchical order.

Then both were discovered to have active snatches, and well, the honeymoon was over.

If McCain's people wanted to suggest merely hedonism, there are lots of other celebs they could have used. The subtext here is good-girls-gone-wild, and it's set against the aspect of the suave black figure, conquerer of fame, mover of millions, erotic svengali.

So, this ad is also a little D.W. Griffith for the megachurch crowd.

What does it say that she'll be holding forth on a safe, pious topic that can keep her pro-war, pro-corporate soul essentially botoxed for an hour?

That, I guess, she isn't going to be allowed to blow it for Obama.

In the photo above, it does seem as if she's about to, er, bust out a monologue.

Real or not, how amusing that Norm's money shot is delivered over a trash bin.

Breathe deeply, senator.