Keepin' It Alive

That, and other news, in today's Political Panorama.

The Republican National Committee unveiled a "Celeb Quiz" on its Website, this time tying Barack Obama to George Clooney and Madonna. (Hey, moving from tabloid to A-list. Not bad).

ABC News' Jake Tapper reports that the new interactive site asks users to guess whether Obama or some (other) celebrity actually said the quote.

An example: "Anybody gone into Whole Foods lately and see what they charge for arugula?" It's not too hard to see what the answer will be to every question. Tapper, by the way, had his own quiz the other day --- this one exploring the celebrity connections/pampering of John McCain.

The Chicago Sun Times' Lynn Sweet digs up a past Obama quote on his own celebrity from a 2004 Gridiron dinner, held after his convention speech that year. "It's like I was shot out of a cannon. I am so overexposed, I make Paris Hilton look like a recluse. "After all the attention -- People magazine, GQ, Vanity Fair, Letterman -- I figure there's nowhere to go from here but down. So tonight, I announce my retirement from the United States Senate. I had a good run."

Meanwhile, two days after chiding Obama for his association with celebrities, John McCain is stumping with --- a celebrity. Country music star John Rich headlines a concert in Panama City, Florida this evening. Rich  is expected to perform a new song he wrote for the candidate, "Raisin' McCain."

Reactions to the "Celeb" ad are far and wide, but different perspective comes from Marty Kaplan, the director of the Normal Lear Center at USC.

He writes on Huffington Post, "As always, with Republicans in general, the most reliable way to understand their thinking is from the perspective of the culture wars of the '60s, and in the case of McCain in particular, the perspective of his Vietnam experience.

"The people who believed in Bobby Kennedy, the Americans who made him a star, were just as ditzy to believe in his message about ending the war and reducing inequality as they were to worship Marilyn Monroe. The people who rallied on the Mall in amazing numbers to hear Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream, the people who wanted to follow him out of Vietnam, were naive starf***ers; by turning their backs on Nixon and Kissinger, by putting joy ahead of sacrifice, they were undermining America in the world and our troops in Southeast Asia."

NBC Plans: NBC plans prime time coverage of each convention for at least an hour on all four nights, with more extensive coverage on MSNBC, CNBC and Telemundo, for a total of 200 hours. Luke Russert will join NBC News to report from both conventions on the youth vote.