MAUREEN DOWD PENS HER FIRST AD FOR THE McCAIN CAMPAIGN

I had no idea the Times let its columnists moonlight this way.

Watch the first five seconds of the ad, just as the announcer says, "He's the biggest celebrity in the world":



Yikes.

Yup, he's not just a celebrity -- he's a girl celebrity. Because being respected by non-Americans makes your penis fall off.

Talking Points Memo says the message is that Obama is a "puffed-up dandy." That's one way of putting it -- effeteness and effeminacy all at once. I'm reminded of the recent attempts by the GOP to float the notion that Obama is a "fancy lad," an echo of the "Fancy Ford" site the GOP put up against Harold Ford when he was running for U.S. Senate. ("Fancy," of course, also has that extra meaning of "pimp," so I suspect we'll be hearing it again from the GOP.)

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(Note to literalists: The headline is what scholars of blogging refer to as a "joke.")