• Charles Gibson reeled in big ratings for ABC with his interview with Sarah Palin. [THR]

Hoping to stop us all from talking about the Palin-McCain ticket anymore, Barack Obama's campaign today released an ad attacking John McCain as an Old who admits he doesn't know how to use a computer or send an email. A campaign official told Politico the commercial is designed to "underscore that John McCain can’t bring about change when he is completely out of touch with the lives of regular Americans." Of course, all of us real 'mericans know computers are just for "glib, articulate, fancy, dancey, prancey" liberal elites.Click to view

Former Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee gave a speech today and got a lot of laughs when he said this about Sarah Palin: "People were coming into my office, phone calls were flooding in, e-mails were coming in, 'I just sent money to Obama, I couldn't sleep last night' - from the left. To see this cocky wacko up there." Now, Chafee was never that convincing a Republican, but here's the thing: neither, for the vast majority of his career anyway, was John McCain. And if Palin energizes the Republican base, she's sure as hell alienating a huge portion of the John McCain base. Let's call them "Angry White Men With Working Brain Cells."* My brother is one; he used to have a mild hardon for McCain; this morning I got an email from him about some Palin nightmare he had last night followed an hour later by an email from the Obama campaign informing me he'd donated a hundred bucks. He is part of the niche that gets riled up not over the idea bombing Iran, or even dumfuckedly joking about bombing Iran, but becomes suddenly borderline rabid over stories like this (as told to Bob Woodward.)

• David Letterman had his second-highest ratings of the year last night thanks to Barack Obama's appearance. [THR]

That's two weeks of media coverage dominated completely by Sarah Palin and her doddering creepy old uncle John McCain. The Palin/McCain ticket is still enjoying a residual "bounce" in the polls from Ms. Palin's selection and the GOP's 1.5 night mini-convention. Obama's been on the defensive for a remark he made that somehow threw the McCain camp on the defensive in such a way as to make Obama look on the defensive. Barry Hussein Obama did acquit himself pretty well on Letterman last night, but the headlines continued to be dominated by the "pig" comment (at least in the New York Post, which FORGOT ABOUT 9/11). What does he do from here? Look, we're no expert. But we're something better than an expert: a blogger. So we know what to do! Keep On Keepin' On Fundraising concerns aside, the Obama camp has and is spending money on targeted advertising in states it will probably win and states it hopes to win. They're still building their ground game in the four or so states that will decide this election. They're still polling above 50% in enough states to win it, national polls be damned. GOTV drives in swing states will win this thing. Debate Prep! There's a large number of Americans who tune out or actively avoid political coverage, tuning in only for the big events—conventions and debates. There's no doubt in our mind that Obama can "win" a debate against McCain on strength of positions, grasp of issues, and temperament. Where he'll falter is in his delivery—he's thinky and halting, as we all know, and McCain is glib and confident. Obama's debate coaching is probably focusing on that right now, while McCain's is focused on cramming to make sure he doesn't fuck up Sunni and Shiite again without Joe Lieberman around to help him out. Advantage: Obama, slightly. Don't Worry About Biden and the Clintons Biden is the king of the Gaffes, but the national press has known him forever and ever. He's generally liked and also expected to put his foot in his mouth again. Unlike a screwup by the candidate, a screwup by Biden will be largely forgiven. As for the Clintons, even if Bill says something idiotic, well, Obama's hardly associated with him. In fact it's generally assumed that they hate each other. So Clinton behaving himself = good for the party, Clinton not behaving himself = drawing distinctions between Obama and The Angry Old Man (hey, what a useful frame). As for Hillary, she won't do anymore more than she has to unless specifically asked. They'll specifically ask her to if they actually seriously need her. Angst Is Good. According to the Wall Street Journal and Politico, Obama's bewildered by the Palin phenomena and his campaign is struggling to keep up. Democrats are freaking out! Frustrated at Obama's inability to get back on the attack! Some of this is concern-trolling from passive-aggressive old Clintonites, some of it is genuine worry, all of it has the potential to be helpful. Worry boosts fundraising. Worry energizes volunteers and staffers. It's good motivation. You don't want it to become defeatism, obviously, but that feeling of inevitability that suddenly began following Obama around as he slowly destroyed Hillary was not helpful against John McCain, even if that guy did seem like a loser. The Media War This largely pointless except as a diversion and game. This is Steve Schmidt and David Axelrod's war, and they're enjoying it as their candidates suffer. (You think either McCain or Obama like the inane umbrage-fest this has become?) So try to plant some messages about how Palin is lipstick on McCain's pig! Claim McCain is too old and addled to understand the economy! The GOP is painting Obama as a sexist baby-killer who wants to teach your 6-year-old how to use a dental dam, so you can feel free to go nuts too. Honestly, it's just something to occupy the news until September 26. Related: Hasn't Gail Collins been kinda great lately?

Anne Hathaway walking with a mystery man downtown ... Jessica Alba shopping for clothes with baby Honor in SoHo ... Rachel Zoe and her assistant Brad arriving at Bryant Park ... Julianne Moore about to cross the street in the Village ... Jennifer Lopez going to lunch at Nello wearing an Oscar de la Renta gown ... Alicia Keys solo and chatting on her cell ... Julia Roberts waving to the paparazzi during a walk downtown ... Sarah Jessica Parker walking with her son James Wilke ... Katie Holmes wearing baggy jeans and carrying a bag ... Barack Obama and Lebron James showing up at the set of the Letterman show ... Lauren Conrad making an appearance at Bloomingdale's to promote her clothing line ... Diane Kruger walking her bike on the sidewalk in front of Anthropologie ... Michelle Trachtenberg and a male friend dressed up and walking in the middle of the street in SoHo ... model May Andersen and friends heading to Bar Pitti ... and Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel heading to Southern Hospitality for a late night dinner.

Key difference between Barack Obama and John McCain: Unlike his notoriously temperamental Republican opponent, Obama tends to keep his cool even in the most trying of circumstances. For communicating that message to voters, Obama's appearance on David Letterman last night was effective politics. The presidential nominee joked about the ginned-up scandal around his use of the phrase "lipstick on a pig," and that phrase's alleged ties to McCain running mate Sarah Palin. He even got in a clever wisecrack about being jealous of Palin's celebrity. The only snag is that Letterman's audience, at least compared to its competitors, tends toward the younger coastal "elites" who were already going to vote for Obama. Sigh. At least we'll always have the clip. Click the video icon to watch. [via Huffington Post]

No sooner did Barack Obama's PorcineLipstickGate scandal reared it head here moments ago than we had an epic acid flashback to a far worse drama that unfolded this year at Coachella: That of the "Obama Pig" set aloft and eventually untethered during Roger Waters's set. "That's my pig!" Waters shouted, watching its inflated girth and pro-Obama checkmark rise over the valley and drift out of sight. It was soon found and replaced anyway by another anti-gravity oinker, this one bearing its own Obama endorsement and contained to the Q2 Arena in London. And suddenly, the vortex of American politics slowed, stilled and became the crystalline rabbit hole we always knew it was. We'll stick to beer next time. [via Flickr/NachoFoto]

A tipster's discovered Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's LinkedIn profile and handily pointed out the poor intern who had to put it together's typos. Surprised anyone bothered to find it? Don't be. According to Google Trends, Sarah Palin gets more search queries than either of the two men at the top of the tickets. Probably doesn't hurt that Google counts what Hitwise says are the very many searches for "Sarah Palin Vogue Magazine," "Sarah Palin Photos," "Sarah Palin Bikini Photos," "Sarah Palin Nude," and "Sarah Palin Naked." With his strong cheek bones and steely-eyed stare, John McCain is a very handsome man, but not many of us need to see him naked. The Internet's obsession for Sarah Palin, according to the Google Trends chart below, seems to know no bounds.

Do you ever have one of those days where you just want to pack it in because everyone else in the world is so patently, transparently intellectually dishonest and/or un-self-aware as to defy any and all stabs at serious criticism or even derisive mockery? Do those days ever last for the entire month of September? Are you outraged over Obama's lipstick remark or outraged over the outrage over it? Either way you are part of the problem! How does this shit happen? It's very simple. There's nothing happening. Except Palin. The conventions are over and the campaigns now are focused on debate prep and early voting drives. Those are the only things that actually matter, right now, for both campaigns. The rest is just back-and-forth noise-making. Except for Palin who is a media sensation! So everything Palin-related will make headlines. So McCain's team just made up a Palin headline, to keep her in the news. That's all. But you know that is not a very interesting post, is it? So let's pick through this in a sad and doomed search for anything relevant or even slightly interesting! We're trying to work through this rationally. Give us a minute. Did the McCain campaign think they'd be able to convince the media that they're genuinely outraged about a sexist comment made by Barack Obama? That didn't actually seem to matter—no one on earth thinks this outrage is anything other than a political ploy, that does not affect the serious coverage one iota. When the McCain campaign accused Governor David Paterson of "playing the race card" this week, it made headlines but got no real traction. This, though, is leading everything. The story is that Barack Obama used an ancient Washington cliche, while talking about McCain. A cliche every politician, including McCain, uses in an attempt to sound folksy. A cliche surely familiar to most Americans. The McCain rapid-response team seized on the term and applied it to Palin, with help from Jake Tapper. Now through endless repition they are attempting to implant the idea that Barack Obama called Sarah Palin a "pig," and that that is a sexist term. Which does not make sense. Because no one has ever thought of Sarah Palin as remotely "piggish," and "pig," we thought, was a term of derision for men. We can't figure out the strategy here, at all, on either side. Will the base get riled up about this? Sure, why not, but they get riled up over everything, that's why they're the base. Will the vast mushy middle think Obama was being sexist? Even if they do, will they care? In a 'rational' world, this would make McCain look defensive—the supposed usual position of stupid stupid Democrats. It's desperate and weak. Do the Democrats have the "guts" to use the "playing the sexism card" card? Are we going to shoot ourselves if we keep talking like this? We don't know the answer to either question. But we honestly don't think this will last through the day, this outrage, and as far as how it relates or adds to the ongoing 'framing' and 'narrative-building' by both campaigns, we're stumped. There is maybe some residual "Obama is a sexist" stuff from the primaries, but the vast majority of those complaints were lodged against The Dreaded Media. And "the media is biased against Sarah Palin" still seems to be a charge with a better chance of sticking. It has already stuck so well, in fact, that maybe everyone just seized on this to deflect criticism. And what should Obama do? Daniel Radosh has a sensible Rovian response but so far the Democrats just continue saying "this is a distraction, wtf, how do you get away with this," which is also how we feel about it but, you know, when you chant that so much for so long without getting anyone on your side, you might want to rethink your strategy. But frankly even though Obama clearly did not mean it that way he should now just continue on as if damn straight he was making a snide remark about Sarah Palin. Because you might as well paint Sarah Palin as a total bitch, which is, we seem to recall, what she painted herself as when she said she was a transvestite pitbull or whatever the fuck.

Barack Obama has long needed to take his first real swipe at his presidential rival John McCain as the Republican hammers away at Obama's lead in the polls. That makes it all the more tragic that Obama's attack yesterday missed its mark so widely. The Democrat's profoundly careless statement that "You can put lipstick on a pig — it's still a pig" was seized upon by supporters and opponents alike as a brutal attack of McCain's running mate Sarah Palin. It might be clear in context (see video after the jump) that Obama wasn't referring to the VP candidate. But Obama should have known it would be read that way after Palin's famous convention line, "What's the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick." The inevitable backlash and media firestorm will not only consume several precious days of the campaign news cycle — it will make it harder for Obama to take the hard swings he needs to take.

Hollywood's growing political skirmishes have savagely overtaxed our Defamer Decides '08 bureau over the last 24 hours, with the Oprah Winfrey/Sarah Palin fallout still flowing over the transom and even the formidable presence of Chuck Norris on Fox promoting his unique, Palin-proud brand of "black belt patriotism." Indeed, writes Anchorman/Step Brothers filmmaker (and occasional Huffington Post contributor) Adam McKay, the post-GOP Convention hangover is a potent one — or even potentially fatal, now that McCain has closed the gap on Obama. To which the saturnine scribe reacted with a deep gaze into his crystal ball and a reality check heard 'round the world: "We're Gonna Frickin' Lose This Thing":

Sign of the times: spammers are now enticing clicks on virus-laden emails with promises of Barack Obama sex videos. Barack Obama sex videos with Ukrainian white slaves! "Download and view not. Please sent this news to your friends. Obama it.s not right choice..." the spammers warn. A lot of fucked-up readings of the typical American male's psyche in there, right? Spammers ought to be thrilled at the selection of Sarah Palin, as it's been proven by researchers that there's actually no way to convince anyone to click on the name "Joe Lieberman." [Wired]

Dear Us Weekly editor-in-chief Janice Min, I realize I told you it was a massive screw-up for you to go so hard on Sarah Palin. And I realize I might have even done my part to fan the flames. But seriously, was it really necessary to tell David Carr she "out Obama'ed Obama with her speech" and "came on like a supermom who is not going to take a lot of guff from anyone"? And whose idea was it to offer five whole free issues to all your enraged Republican hate-mailers, only so said hate -mailers could turn around and betray you to the likes of demonspawn Michelle Malkin?? That sounds like something Jesus would do, Janice Min!Which is why I can't get mad at your hasty political backtracking. Something about that would be so "typical Democrat self-immolating," so "Nation of Whiners" of me. Instead I will leave you with this story: yesterday I attended a panel on income inequality at Barnes & Noble featuring my own personal Jesus, Wall Street Journal columnist Tom Frank and former Harper's editor-in-chief Lewis Lapham. Tom's new book The Wrecking Crew is a hysterically funny survey of the hysterically vast destruction Republicans and their unabashed contempt for government have unleashed upon the government. If we were more like them, we would have figured out a way to convincingly get voters to substitute out "America" for "government" in that last sentence, but no. We are just so relentlessly self-critical! I heard one spectator whine about how he would vote for Ralph Nader or Ron Paul before Obama. Asked another, a late arriving senior citizen, afterward: "But did they let the Democrats off the hook? The Democrats always let the Republicans start wars!" And while it was true, it was the sort of rhetorical question that was its own explanation. Which is to say, Janice Min, I see some dirt on your shoulder, could I brush it off for you?

The Fashion Week crowd will take a break from discussing hemlines and turn its attention this evening to the other big (and possibly more important?) story dominating the media: the upcoming presidential election. A fundraiser for Barack Obama will take place tonight at Charles Nolan's Chelsea studio. Expected to attend: Anna Wintour (who sat alongside a dour Natalie Portman at Derek Lam's show earlier today, left), Sarah Jessica Parker, and André Leon Talley, among others. The Obamas won't be there, but they'll gladly scoop up the $5,000 checks that buy admission to the VIP party beginning at 6:30pm.

Ed Koch endorsed Barack Obama for president this morning, news that came as something of a surprise considering he endorsed Bush in 2004. So what made up his mind? Obama's views on gay rights, perhaps? Koch says it had more to do with his distaste for Sarah Palin: "Frankly, it would scare me if she were to succeed John McCain in the presidency." [NY1, Politico]

Passion: it's a word. But for Men's Health editor Dave Zinczenko, it's a word! That exclamation point represents passion—Dave's passion for his book, Eat This, Not That! Yesterday we heard the rumor that Dave, Julia Allison's old boyfriend, was looking for a new publicist to get him back on the Today show (he said no, only his magazine is hiring a publicist, not him). And we hinted at the existence of an internal email in which Zinczenko grandiosely compared his ab-centric book to "Barak [sic] Obama." Well now that email, from February, is in hand! "Who had a better last three weeks-Barak Obama, or Eat This, Not That? Crazy, audacious comparison, I know, but stay with me here." Okay, go:

Uh-oh. Barbra Streisand—referred to among the elite Democratic core as the Black Buttah Widow for the way her endorsements mean the certain kiss of death—will perform at an Obama fundraiser at the ballroom of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel on September 16. This is a room that holds only 700 people, so attendees will be expected to pony up for the privilege. From Variety.com:

Isn't it bizarre how no one could shut up about Obama and how he'd get a "convention bounce" and then it was maybe not very big but then it suddenly got big, and everyone was all "Obama is ahead hooray!" And the RNC looked like a terrible stupid joke for a couple days, until Sarah Palin gave that well-regarded venomous speech of lies and America said "we like her!" (Though her negatives are high and she is polarizing!) And McCain gave his speech that everyone universally panned—except that it attracted a huge football-lead-in audience and was kind of explicitly geared to appeal not to raging party faithful types (despite pandering lines here and there) but to dumb undecideds who haven't paid attention until just this last week, when they are "supposed to." When will the McCain bounce happen? everyone asked. Your answer: today. Ok? So stop hyperventilating and turn off your iPhone electoral map application and maybe have another beer. Let's look at some of the analysis from "experts": As Slate's election scorecard puts it: "A post-convention bounce puts McCain ahead of Obama in a few national polls for the first time, prompting Pollster.com to shift its overall national trend from 'strong Obama' to 'lean Obama.'" Panic!! Five Thirty Eight says, yes, the RNC and Sarah Palin energized formerly wary right-wing Christian Republicans and now they're answering more pollsters and identifying more strongly with the party and the ticket and more likely to call themselves "likely voters." Right now, the race seems strictly polarized, right down the traditional, predictable lines, and it looks like Obama will try to win Kerry's states and hope for one more. He'll be aided by the economy, probably. And it's stupid reporting or analysis to obsess over each slight shift in the polls (outliers aside, each candidate's individual numbers have barely shifted from the mid-to-high-40s since the beginning of the summer), especially when you predicted those bounces and setbacks.

Narrowingly beating out Hans Reiser in a tight reader vote, The Register's newest columnist, Ted Dziuba, has won the IT snark site's poll for CTO of America. Yeah, it's stupid. But after reading all those bloggers who seriously expect Barack Obama to come to them for sage counsel, I needed a break.