Shots in the Dark

Or so says one anonymous McCain aide of Sarah Palin. He added: “She takes no advice from anyone.”

They are turning on each other now. Who’ll be the last person in the lifeboat?

I will say this for Palin: You can’t really blame her for trying to look out for herself; the McCain campaign has been trying to treat her like a doll, and it’s not doing her much good.

Besides, why would anyone take advice from anyone in the worst-managed campaign since, oh, Michael Dukakis’?

Palin is running for 2012 now, not 2008.

I don’t usually follow celebrity news that closely, but this Jennifer Hudson story is truly awful.

The Crimson reports on the demise of 02138.

“We were expanding the focus and trying to make it less about Harvard,” said [editor David] Blum.

Curious. But on the other hand….

...the final issue—and the only one ever produced by Manhattan Media—contained an article on the sons of New York Times columnist Frank Rich, one of whom attended Harvard, and another on Harvard connections to the Bush administration’s Iraq War machine.

One could argue about the merits of those article ideas—does anyone other than Mr. and Mrs. Rich care about the Rich boys? And a little late on the Iraq piece—but they’re really no different from the kind of thing that might have run in the pre-Manhattan Media 02138.

“We were redesigning the entire magazine basically from scratch,” Blum said.

If I sound slightly irritated, it’s because Blum (whom I don’t know, but people say good things about) and the folks at Manhattan Media have consistently talked down the past work of all those involved at 02138. Some of that is inevitable, as when you acquire a magazine, it’s generally SOP to talk about how you’re going to change it—but the tone has been unusually negative given that MM has never published a national magazine and, well, still hasn’t.

Meanwhile, all that money spent on redesigning a magazine which had a strong design already—how much did George Lois cost, exactly?—might have been used to, oh, publish an issue.

Sarah Palin is distancing herself from John McCain. Those who think that she doesn’t want to run for president in 2012 should read this article.

By the way, she’s now claiming that, normally, she buys her clothing at a consignment shop in Anchorage. Within 48 hours, this will be determined to be a lie.

(Hmmm…maybe not. It’s called “Out of the Closet,” and it sells Gucci. We’ll see.)

Speaking of do-anything-for-power politicians…..

The insidious, oleaginous Joe Lieberman is now talking about how much he respects Barack Obama.

“When I go out, I say, ‘I have a lot of respect for Sen. Obama. He’s bright. He’s eloquent.’ Someday, I might even support him for president,” Lieberman told a conference call of Connecticut reporters. “But now in the midst of this series of crises, John McCain is simply so much better prepared that that’s who I am proud to support.”

Obama is “bright”? Does Lieberman have any idea how patronizing/borderline racist he sounds?

(Clearly not.)

Obama has done something remarkable, something that Lieberman tried and utterly failed to do: run for president, win his party’s nomination, and appear to be on the verge of winning the White House. Moreover, he’s done it as a black man; he has changed this nation’s history.

And Lieberman says that he’s “bright” and “eloquent”?

In any event, Mr. Lieberman has realized that an Obama landslide, if that’s what it proves to be, will vastly reduce his influence in the Senate.And so he is desperately trying to cover his ass.

Lieberman’s arrogance is profound. “Someday I might even support him for president”—as if anyone will care about Joe Lieberman’s endorsement in 2012.

Let us hope that Joe Lieberman is well gone from the Senate by that point.

…sleep with Kim Basinger, knowing what Alec Baldwin now knows—that she’s, well, a little nuts?

Barbara Harrison of the Huffington Post interviewed me on the subject. Kind of.

Fishers Island, New York

“Well, it has to be safe, environment, blah, blah, blah.”

—John McCain, mocking Barack Obama’s position on energy alternatives at a rally in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

The Washington Post has Obama up by 8 in Virginia.

The poll indicates that Obama’s staff and volunteers have made staggering gains in reaching out to Virginia’s 5 million registered voters. More than half of all voters surveyed said they have been contacted in person, on the phone or by e-mail or text message about voting for Obama, far more than said so about McCain.

That is remarkable, and it’s one of the most central narratives of this election—the organizational capabilities of Obama’s campaign. Here in New York, I have four friends, all from different circles, who are volunteering—one phone-banking, one who held a fundraiser, two who are actually traveling to Pennsylvania to go door-to-door. And this is New York, where McCain isn’t even bothering to campaign.

A brilliant adaptation of the Budweiser ads…