About a month ago, I wondered whether or not a couple of unimaginably horrible YouTube music videos supporting Hillary Clinton had actually been created by her detractors. The videos were just so comically bad that it seemed like a practical joke, or worse. Now, a similar karaoke-style music video is making the rounds, this one supporting John McCain, and it raises the same question: Can they be serious? Either way, there’s no way this thing can help his campaign.

The video, Raining McCain is a music video featuring three overweight women singing a song about John McCain to the tune of It’s Raining Men. And again, the singers are so off-key that it seems intentional, and the content of the video is so ridiculous that it seems like a spoof (the older woman’s body actually disappears in front of the green screen for most of the video).

This video raises a bunch of questions, but the biggest mystery to me is the meaning of this line, which recurs a couple of times in the course of the song: “I’m going to go out and let myself get ab-so-lute-ly John McCain!”

What the hell does that mean? The line from It’s Raining Men is, “I’m gonna go out to run and let myself get absolutely soaking wet!” But substituting “John McCain” for “soaking wet” is so meaningless it makes the song even more ludicrous than it already is.

Here’s another choice line: “He taught every angel to rearrange the vote, so that each and every American could find John McCain.” Whoa, that’s deep.

It’s been four days since HBO debuted its critically acclaimed mini-series, John Adams, but only after watching it again last night did I notice some curious parallels to a certain Illinois senator running for President.

I’m not really going to review Sunday night’s episodes; for that, check out the New Yorker’s and New York Times’ thorough recaps and reviews.

Although it wasn’t really the talk of the town (thanks a lot, Ashley Dupré!), the series did draw about 2.5 million viewers for each of its two premier episodes, making it the best mini-series debut for HBO since 2004, according to Broadcasting & Cable.

But as one of those 2.5 million viewers, I hope I’m not the only one who felt a peculiar connection between John Adams (as portrayed in the script) and Barack Obama.

First, there’s the series tagline: “He United the States of America.” Read into it what you will, but I could just as easily see that slogan on an Obama ‘08 bumper sticker. Continue Reading…

Over at Politico, Ben Smith observes that the actual magnitude of those so-called viral videos of Barack Obama’s former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, may have been largely overblown by the media. Take, for example, this story in today’s Washington Post that says, “In the church of the Internet, call him the preacher heard all around our YouTubing world.” The emphasis of the story is on the video response to the Wright video, the “thoughtful videos uploaded by angry, pensive, frustrated, annoyed, confused, provoked YouTubers responding to Wright’s controversial remarks.”

However, as Smith notes, in the relative scheme of viral video, those videos are still pretty obscure. The most popular one that I could find had been viewed 500,000 times, which is enough to make it on the top 20 list for the past week, but it’s really not that impressive. In comparison, take, for example, Obama’s speech in Philadelphia yesterday (which we reposted below): in less than one day, that video has fetched more than 1.2 million views, more than doubling Reverend Wright’s viewership over the past week. And according to the Viral Video Chart, the most popular of the Wright videos has already peaked, while the spread of Obama’s speech appears to have only just begun:

Reverend Wright video:

Video of Obama’s speech:

Smith also suggests that the momentum gained by the Wright videos was somehow more organic than that of Obama’s speech because the Obama campaign posted the video and circulated it widely, but I would argue that conservative blogs did the same thing with the Wright videos. And it’s also worth noting that the most popular of the Wright videos was taken from FOX News, which, along with other cable news networks, did its part in circulating the “scandalous” videos.

Pat Buchanan got in over his head on the Dan Abrams Show on Wednesday as he tried to defend Geraldine Ferraro’s recent comments that many perceived to be a racist swipe at Barack Obama. Buchanan was double teamed by Rachel Maddow and Keli Goff as he tried to clarify his and Ferraro’s positions, and at one point he lost control and asked Goff to “Shut up for a second, please!” [a short clip is below; the entire 17-minute show is here]

However, the part of the exchange that’s most interesting isn’t when Buchanan tells Goff to shut up (although it is sort of surprising, considering how accustomed to being interrupted the McLaughlin Group regular must be by now). Buchanan’s actual line of argument is of far greater interest, because he argued two separate points, thus articulating exactly why Ferraro’s remarks have been interpreted as racist. First, he said that Ferraro’s comments (”If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position” and that he’s “lucky” to be black) are valid, and second, that Obama is winning certain Southern states because large African-American populations in those states favor him.

Ferraro’s position has been tagged as racist because of its open-endedness; it trivializes any and all of Obama’s personal successes, suggesting that he’s been given a free pass all along. The other argument — the voter demographic position — is no different than the sort of exit polling data that CNN gives viewers as the returns come in. Pundits always address who wins the female vote, the black vote, the white male vote, and so on and so forth. It’s not a particularly racist exercise, although it does tend to over-simplify the results.

Buchanan surely knew the difference between the two positions he was taking, and he must also know that people are likely to respond passionately when one outspoken racist (Buchanan) comes out in the defense of another perceived racist. Incredibly, Buchanan didn’t stop there though; he actually tried to further his argument by citing Joe Biden’s famous 2007 flap in which he told the New York Observer that Obama was the only “articulate” and “clean” African-American to have a shot at the White House. Probably not the best source to cite there, Pat.

After news broke that New York Governor Eliot Spitzer has been identified as “Client Number 9″ in a federal wiretap linking him to a prostitution ring, Spitzer gave the shortest press conference in history (see video below). The whole thing clocked in at about a minute, leaving the cable news talking heads with a whole afternoon of airtime to fill. So they did what they do best: they misreported the facts, speculated on topics that they don’t know much about, and spouted a bunch of unsubstantiated opinions.

The party started with FOX News incorrectly (or prematurely) reporting that Spitzer would be indicted and that he was going to resign, according to The New York Times‘ City Room blog. Then, on CNBC, Jim Cramer, who it turns out is a friend of Spitzer, was absolutely shell-shocked. “I hope it’s not true,” Cramer said; “I just hope it’s not true. If it’s true, it’s obviously very sad. It’s bad.” (If you’re unfamiliar with Cramer’s abilities as a performer, watch this clip.)

Over on MSNBC, Alan Dershowitz defended Spitzer, suggesting that it was America’s fault for being a “pandering society and hypocritical society.” And one of the best cable news moments of the day goes to Tucker Carlson, who was on the same broadcast. Carlson continued with Dershowitz’s tack, suggesting not that this story is a product of our society, but that it’s an outgrowth of the filthy, scandal-obsessed, sex-crazed media: “You see the press, a group that has, frankly, pretty unconventional personal lives, by and large, getting all high-handed that a grown man went to a prostitute is nauseating,” Carlson said. “I just think this is one of the least sleazy things he’s done.” (HuffPo has the whole clip.)

Monday, of course, was a big day for Carlson, as it was announced this morning that his show would be taken off the air and that David Gregory would be taking his place. Perhaps he was just passive aggressively blowing off some steam when they asked him about Spitzer. Ah, well, that’s probably better for his psyche than hitting the dance floor.

John McCain channeled his inner Sarkozy this morning in a testy exchange with a New York Times reporter, and fortunately, for our entertainment, the AP had a camera running. NYT Washington Correspondent Elisabeth Bumiller asked the Republican candidate whether he had ever had a conversation with John Kerry about being his 2004 running mate. Within moments, steam started pumping out of the usually subdued senator’s ears.

“Everybody knows that I had a private conversation,” he insisted. “Everybody knows that, that I had a conversation, and you know it, too.” Then, as she tried to rephrase the question, he became hysterical and started interrupting her: “No. You know it, too. No. You do know. You do know.”

Then, to follow up, Bumiller asked if McCain would describe that conversation. McCain instead chose to explain what does and does not constitutes a private conversation: “I don’t describe private conversations,” he said. “Why should I? Then there’s no such thing as a private conversation.” Finally, at the end of the exchange, an exasperated Bumiller can be heard asking, “Why are you so angry?”

“Afterward, on a campaign flight, Bumiller said she looked in the Times’ archives and that McCain had denied talking with Kerry in a May 2004 story,” according to the AP.

McCain has a reputation for his hot temper, but this time he has good reason to be frustrated; after all, who wouldn’t be embarrassed for even being considered as Kerry’s running mate? And we know how fond McCain is of the New York Times these days.

John McCain is an unfortunate victim of circumstance. First, with no opponent for the Republican presidential nomination, he now has to sustain the media’s attention despite all eyes being fixed on the Clinton-Obama showdown. (The title of this Reuters article from today says it all: “McCain now has challenge of staying in public eye.”)

Secondly, despite winning all four states from last Tuesday’s primaries, it turns out more voters are voicing concerns about his age. The 71-year-old Republican presidential nominee is only two years older than when Ronald Reagan entered the White House.

But while reading an AP movie review for the new movie “10,000 B.C.,” I noticed something ironic about the accompanying web advertisement. See if you can spot it:

If I didn’t know any better, John McCain is an “historic bore.” (Note: This screengrab has not been Photoshopped!)

I hope people don’t start “Google bombing” McCain with the words “historic bore,” as they did back in 2003 with George W. Bush and the words “miserable failure.”

Either way, we get it already: He’s old. Let’s move on.

Okay…who let Jack Nicholson close to a computer?

In what would appear to be the lamest rebuttal to the pro-Obama “Yes We Can” videos, the “Bucket List” actor and resident Lakers-bench badass decided to make an endorsement video for Hillary Clinton, whom he is supporting for the Democratic nomination.

One problem: the video sucks. Continue Reading…

We’ve been going a little overboard with the Obama coverage today, but this video from Slate V’s Torie Bosch is too good to resist. Bosch shows some striking similarities between Barack Obama’s presidential campaign and the fictional campaign of Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits) on The West Wing. Bosch isn’t the first to note the similarity; Politico’s Jamal Simmons wrote basically the same thing last week, but it’s a bit more compelling to see the clips of Obama and Santos side-by-side.

Turns out, not only were Obama’s advisers paying attention to The West Wing, they were helping to craft the plot. David Axelrod had even consulted with West Wing writer Eli Attie while working on Obama’s 2004 senate campaign, and Attie later admitted that Obama directly shaped the Santos character. Continue Reading…