RIGHT, BECAUSE NO REPUBLICAN WOULD EVER USE SEX TO GET ELECTED (cough SARAH PALIN cough) (with a Monica Crowley update)

Right-wingers are horrified at this new Obama Web ad, in which Lena Dunham of Girls talks about her "first time" (wink wink), which refers to voting for Obama:





I'm told it echoes a Vladimir Putin campaign ad -- though it's not exactly an unusual ad concept. (Anyone remember the "You'll never forget your first time" Campari ads from the 1980s, memorably parodied by Hustler magazine?)

But if the right is shocked by the introduction of (gasp!) sex into the campaign, I just want to take a trip down Memory Lane to 2008:

It is not unusual for fans of Sarah Palin to shout out to the Alaska governor in the midst of her stump speeches. It is noteworthy, however, that the crowds are heavily male.

"You rock me out, Sarah," yelled one man, wearing a red-checked hunting jacket....

"I feel like I'm at home," Ms. Palin said, looking out at a boisterous crowd of about 6,000. "I see the Carhartts and the steel-toed boots," she said....

"Marry me, Sarah," a man implored in Weirs Beach, N.H.....

Yes, some men come to ogle the candidate, too. "She's beautiful," said a man wearing a John Deere T-shirt in Weirs Beach. "I came here to look at her," he said, and his admiration for Ms. Palin's appearance became more and more animated....

Its not clear how many of those guys were wearing "ALASKA: Coldest State, Hottest Governor" buttons.

Oh, and of course this was some time after a moment involving the guy at the top of that ticket:

Sen. John McCain, R-Az., perhaps unknowingly, volunteered his wife for a beauty pageant on Monday that often features contestants topless -- and, occasionally, without any decency -- at the Sturgis, South Dakota, motorcycle rally.

"I was looking at the Sturgis schedule, and noticed that you had a beauty pageant, so I encouraged Cindy to compete," McCain told an audience at the rally. "I told her [that] with a little luck, she could be the only woman to serve as both the First Lady and Miss Buffalo Chip."

The audience, clearly better versed in the details of the pageant, cheered and whistled their approval....

So get off the fainting couches, wingers.

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UPDATE: Right-wing media personality and former Richard Nixon amanuensis Monica Crowley calls the Dunham ad "super-gross":

ICYMI Here is the super-gross Lena Dunham "Your First Time"/Lose Your Virginity to Obama ad: bit.ly/VKp2Uo#.UInf_s…

— Monica Crowley (@MonicaCrowley) October 26, 2012

Crowley's taste in campaign films is a bit different:

A new "documentary" alleging that President Obama's real father is actually communist writer Frank Marshall Davis was enthusiastically promoted by Fox News contributor and O'Reilly Factor guest host Monica Crowley on her radio show last month.

Dreams from My Real Father ... was written, directed, and produced by conservative filmmaker Joel Gilbert ... its premise [is] that Obama is a "red diaper baby" born to the communist Davis...

Dunham's allusions to sex upset Crowley, but this is apparently just fine:

In Dreams From My Real Father, ... photos of a naked woman wearing leather gloves, boots and a corset in a suggestive pose are featured. The film claims the woman in question is Obama's mother Ann Dunham.

And while we're on the subject of Crowley, let's not forget this choice moment from 2008:

On The Laura Ingraham Show, guest host Monica Crowley stated that "according to this genealogy -- and again, because I haven't done the research, I can't verify this -- but according to this guy Kenneth Lamb, Barack Obama is not black African, he is Arab African." Crowley continued: "And yet, this guy is campaigning as black and painting anybody who dares to criticize him as a racist. I mean, that is -- it is the biggest con I think I've ever seen."

Yup -- Crowley questions whether Obama is actually black. In a tasteful, non-sexual, way, of course, so it's OK.

(Partly X-posted at Balloon Juice.)