Wilshire & Washington

The Latest Column: Chuckle Kerfluffle

The New Yorker. Bernie Mac. "University of Spoiled Children." At this stage, a presidential campaign is no place for comedy. My latest column from the print edition of Variety here.

Gore: No VP

Al Gore tells ABC News tonight that he's not going to be taking the VP slot.

"I've decided to take a personal term limit of two terms as vice president," he says, per The Page.

In what is turning into a publicity blitz for his environmental initiatives, Gore also appears on "CBS Evening News" and tells Katie Couric he hopes that the two presidential candidates will take up his 10-year challenge, but adds, "If you're asking the question, which one is better on the issue? Clearly Senator Obama is."

This Week's Show

On the latest "Wilshire & Washington" on BlogTalkRadio, Barack Obama faces an army of angry supporters --- who are expressing their frustration with the campaign on the candidate's own online social networking site. Will they stay around? Also: the Obama campaign is upset about the New Yorker cover but couldn't be happier with Newsweek. You can listen to it here.

Convention Countdown

Mary Ann Akers of the Washington Post fills in a few more details of who will be appearing and performing at the Democratic National Convention: Kayne West, Wyclyf Jean and N.E.R.D.

Also on tap: Ben Affleck, Scarlett Johannson, Forrest Whitaker, Edward Norton, Warren Beatty and Annette Bening.

Bono's One Campaign also is planning a bash during the four days.

Smoke Out

Last week, all six studios and what seemed like every camera-ready politico jumped on board for a press conference to announce that anti-smoking PSAs would be slapped on many DVDs with scenes where characters light up.

But will it be enough?

The American Medical Assn. Alliance has been especially critical of the studios releasing summer tentpoles with tobacco use, like Universal's "Incredbile Hulk." Melissa Walthers, a spokeswoman for the group, says that the most recent studio action is a step in the right direction, but it still not enough.

She wrote in an e-mail, "The AMA Alliance supports running anti-smoking ads before all films (whether on DVD or in theaters) that include images of smoking. This useful action, however,  is only one step on a longer road to doing the right thing.  That is why we -- along with a broad array of partners -- continue to demand that the ratings system be modernized to rate smoking in movies R.  Doing so will cut youth exposure in half, preventing an estimated 200,000 kids from starting to smoke."

Cartoon Critic

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

Barack Obama attempted to shrug off the New Yorker cover in an appearance on "Larry King Live" last night.

"Well, I know it was The New Yorker's attempt at satire. I don't think they were entirely successful with it. But you know what? It's a cartoon, Larry, and that's why we've got the First Amendment ... You know, we've -- one of the things when you're running for president for almost two years is, you get a pretty thick skin. And, you know, I've seen and heard worse.

"I do think that, you know, in attempting to satirize something, they probably fueled some misconceptions about me instead. But, you know, that was their editorial judgment. And as I said, ultimately, it's a cartoon, it's not where the American people are spending a lot of their time thinking about."

He did, however, says that the drawing "an insult against Muslim Americans."

More on Jib-Jab: ABC News points out that the latest video spends almost as much time satirizing President Bush and Hillary Clinton as it does candidates McCain and Obama.

McCain's Moneymen: John McCain's presidential campaign unveiled a new list of campaign bundlers, with rough outlines of the range that each has raised as well as their occupations.

Among the industry figures who have raised between $50,000 and $100,000: Echostar's Charlie Ergen. In the $100,000 to $250,000 range: James Nederlander III, Harry Sloan and Burt Sugarman. In the $250,000 to $500,000 range: Steve Wynn. More than $500,000: Jerry Perenchio and MGM Grand's Terry Lanni.

More to DNC: Joining the Creative Coalition at the Democratic National Convention will be Josh Lucas, Zooey Deschanel, Rashida Jones and Charles S. Dutton.

JibJab on '08

Yet another amusing and inspired JibJab video --- this time with McCain as a warmonger and Barack Obama in a fantasy world of unicorns...but no Jesse Jackson or Phil Gramm.

Send a JibJab Sendables® eCard Today!

Alex Gibney Turns to Abramoff

Director Alex Gibney, on a roll after winning an Oscar for "Taxi from the Dark Side," is next turning his attention to Jack Abramoff and the lobbying biz.

At Netroots Nation in Austin on Friday, he will give a preview of his new doc "Casino Jack: The United States of Money," which is bound to be a very sobering look into money and politics, not to mention the power dances at Signatures.

Gibney is part of a panel on how the Internet has changed the way that Washington works, and he'll be joined by HuffPost's Roy Sekoff, strategist Naomi Seligman Steiner, strategist Michael Silberman, MySpace IMPACT public affairs spokesman Lee Brenner and moderator Jim Vanderhei.

Magnolia Pictures is releasing "Casino Jack" in 2009, and its's being produced by Participant Media.

Rod Lurie's Obama Connection

Director Rod Lurie has unearthed some graduation photos from his alma mater, Punahou High School in Honolulu. This is from the ceremony in 1979, the year before Lurie went cap and gown.

Via Hollywood Elsewhere.

Versus Al Franken

After Jesse Ventura said he would not to run for the U.S. Senate, his political mentor, Dean Barkley, decided to throw his hat in the ring.

He's joining a race led by incumbent Norm Coleman and comedian Al Franken.

Barkley, who had been considering a bid, was Ventura's campaign manager in his 1998 gubernatorial run, and he'll actually be running for a seat he briefly held when he was appointed to briefly fill the uncompleted term of Paul Wellstone after he died in a plane crash in 2002.

Ventura told Larry King on Monday that he would not run --- but held out changing his mind if he got some sort of divine intervention. That didn't happen, apparently, and Ventura apparently spent the day golfing.

Barkley told the StarTribune, "I think the opportunity is there," he said. "Anyone with a brain can see that in Minnesota and nationwide, people are pretty well disgusted with both parties. There's room for a viable independent if you can get your message out."

Although Ventura didn't get in the race, his trail balloons may have hurt Franken. Ventura polled almost evenly with Franken in a recent KSTP poll, although such measurements can be skewed before a candidate gets into the race.

Nevertheless, it seems to have invited serious challengers to point out Franken's vulnerabilities. Priscilla Lord Faris filed to run against Franken in the Democratic primary in September, and is banking on raising $1 million to $2 million for her bid. She comes from a well known Minnesota family and is the daughter of retired U.S. District Judge Miles Lord.

Convention Countdown: A Bob Dylan RNC Boycott?

There's talk in St. Paul, Minn. that Bob Dylan has persuaded his son Jakob not to perform to for an agricultural trade group during the Republican National Convention, according to the Politico.

The elder Dylan, who endorsed Barack Obama, is a native of Hibbing, Minn., and has supported progressive causes in the past.

The event, called AgNite, would have been non-partisan, but apparently there were fears that it would have looked as if the younger Dylan was supporting the GOP. The fete is taking place at the old Milwaukee Road depot in downtown Minneapolis, away from the convention site in St. Paul. Organizers instead have lined up Styx.

HRC Concerts: Cyndi Lauper, Rufus Wainwright, and Melissa Etheridge will perform at the Human Rights Campaign's "Rock to Win" concert during the Democratic National Convention. The event will take place on the second night of the convention in Fillmore Auditorium in downtown Denver.

The War on "Wall-E"

Peter Bart detects a backlash to the political overtones of "Wall-E."

He writes, "Some of the far-right sites even denounced Pixar’s parent company, Disney, for encouraging the same sort of over-eating and slothful-fantasies at its theme parks as were parodied on the movie’s spaceship."

"Yet another ‘conservative’, Charlotte Allen, actually liked “WALL-E”. Writing in the Opinion Section of the Los Angeles Times, Allen said the movie was “pro-life” (her explanation was too arcane to quote here) and that it also supported the basic conservative doctrine of “free will.” In her opinion, the central message of “WALL-E” was “anyone, whether robot or human, can transcend what we are supposedly programmed by our culture to be or do.”"

Hollywood may not be earning box office coin for its pedantic readings of the war in Iraq, but its subtler messages in summer tentpoles are resonating.

Ventura: "I'm Not Going to Run"

On "Larry King Live" this evening, former Gov. Jesse Ventura said that he was not going to enter the race for U.S. Senate in Minnesota, where he would face off against incumbent Norm Coleman and comedian Al Franken.

Citing family reasons, including exposing his children to the glare of local media, Ventura said, "As of right now, at this minute, I'm not going to run." He teased that he could still change his mind by the 5 p.m. filing deadline on Tuesday --- riffing that God could intervene and talk to him like he did with George Bush before Bush decided to invade Iraq.

Ventura said it was an "agonizing decision" but he still felt burned by the state media's coverage of his governorship, including stories on a party that his son held at the governor's mansion. He said his daughter, who is handicapped, expressed her reservations about him getting in the race.

The news should come as somewhat of a relief to the Franken campaign, because Ventura threatened to split the anti-incumbent vote.

The former pro wrestler cited a poll released by KSTP on Monday that showed he was nearly tied for second place with Franken, with Coleman pulling a significant lead. Ventura led among independents and fared better among Democrats than Republicans.

"Ultimately this comes down to a personal decision and my personal life," Ventura says. "Do I want to put my family on the firing line again."

As his nature, Ventura teased his decision for as long as he could before King finally pressed him to reveal his answer.

Ventura also took the opportunity to note the influence of religion in politics. Critical of organized religion in the past, he said, a with a bit of bemusement, "I looked hard at what it takes and I looked very strongly at the fact that I am not religious enough."

Ventura defended the New Yorker's Obama cartoon as protected by free speech, but said, "I don't like it. I find it distasteful. But that's politics...It's an extremely dirty business."

Franken received the state Democratic party's endorsement in June, but will face three challengers in the primary in September, including the daughter of well-known federal judge Miles Lord.

Huckabee Talking Fox News Show

Mike Huckabee is in talks to headline his own Fox News show, the candidate told supporters in an e-mail, according to the Politico.

He'd be the latest star political figure to join the news network, following in the footsteps of Karl Rove and former Clinton adviser Howard Wolfson.

Huckabee had been expected to land something big ever since he signed on with CAA in April, and he became a Fox News analyst shortly after that.

But the biggest prize would be if Huckabee lands a permanent gig as successor to Paul Harvey on ABC Radio. He'd reap a huge payday, but there is only one catch: Harvey, 89, isn't retiring, although he's had health problems and has been mourning the death of his wife, Lynne "Angel" Harvey, in May.

A bit ironically, one person who has been noticeably absent as a Harvey sub is Fred Thompson, the former presidential candidate who was said to have been weighing the merits of running vs. pursuing the huge payday from the ABC Radio gig.

Outfest Goes Political: Obama Anxieties

Outfest's Queer State of the Nation panel with gay politicos and filmmakers on Saturday was designed to talk about issues like same-sex marriage and "don't ask, don't tell," but it naturally spilled over into a wider discussion of the state of the '08 race.

More specifically, there some in the audience at the Directors Guild of America expressed concern and frustration over Barack Obama's move to the center, most notably his vote for telecom immunity last week. The issue has inflamed a chunk of Obama's liberal supporters, and has been the source of a great deal of consternation among those who have seen it as a drift away from the candidate's mantra of a new kind of politics.

Jeremy Bernard, Obama's Southern California finance consultant along with partner Rufus Gifford, said that he was "critical of the vote this week. I think it was the wrong vote," adding that he has let officials in Chicago know that "we're losing some money" from donors upset with the candidate's decision.

He also pointed out a double standard in the way that campaigns have been perceived the past few cycles: McCain becomes the nominee, and the media and political consultants ask how he will tilt right to shore up his base. Obama becomes the nominee, and the question is whether he is too far to the left and can move to the center.

Bernard also provided some perspective, noting that "we are electing a president, not a king," and after eight years of Bush "there are going to be high expectations."

"Anything anyone does is going to be seen like a lot after eight years," he said.

Rick Jacobs, the founder of the progressive group Courage Campaign, noted that some 25,000 members of MyBarackObama, the campaign's social networking site, organized in protest to the candidate's FISA vote. He noted that it's proof the campaigns positions are more likely to be forged from the ground up.

"Here's the point: You can do something and still be loyal," Jacobs said.

Obama's moves to the center naturally raise questions about what he will do on some pressing gay rights issues. The candidate has said he would like to repeal "don't ask, don't tell," a move that would allow gays to serve openly in the military.

"It will probably not be the first thing that an Obama administration will look at," Bernard said, citing the the host of pressing concerns about the war in Iraq and the economy, and the furor that President Clinton went through when he tried to change the gays in the military policy when first taking office in 1993.

Bernie Mac's Attack

It's settled: No comedian is going to get a gig introducing a presidential candidate again. Ever.

It's a bit of hyperbole, yes, but Bernie Mac's comments on Friday before introducing Obama at a Chicago fund-raiser drew a sharp rebuke from the campaign and a light warning from the candidate himself.

In short, Mac was riffing on women. From the pool report: "He promised to help Obama and that he would be there “like the Jackson Five” and ended his irreverent riff with a joke involving the women in the families and living with two “hoes.”"

"A heckler started protesting, asking for Mac to step down and let Barack come on."

Obama --- after calling Mac "my great friend, one of the kings of comedy" --- said, “Everybody is concerned about whether the Democratic Party will be unified in time. We don’t have an option but to make sure that we are united and make sure that we succeed…we can’t afford to be divided by race. We can’t afford to be divided by religion, or by region or class. Or by gender,” he said, pausing for effect. “That means, by the way, Bernie you got to clean up your act. This is a family affair… I’m just messing with you.”

Sure, this warm-up is a normal part of Bernie Mac's routine, but when telling jokes on during a campaign it is almost a sure thing that someone will be offended. Even Jesse Ventura, not a man who minces words, said this week that Al Franken can't tell jokes on the trail because someone is bound to take exception. Ventura cited the example of when he told a joke about Irish drinking habits on Letterman, shortly after he became governor of Minnesota. The next day there were cries of outrage in some quarters, even as Ventura tried to defend the remark and pointed out the prevalence of Irish pubs in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Obviously, there's a big difference when a surrogate tells a joke than a candidate. But Mac's remarks took place almost four years to the day from the infamous John Kerry fund-raiser at Radio City Music Hall, an event that was overshadowed by GOP cries over off-color remarks made by Whoopi Goldberg.

The Latest Column: Franken's Ventura Headache

Jesse Ventura says he'll be "the biggest pain in the ass they have ever had on the Senate floor."

Minnesota's former governor is threatening to run against Al Franken and Norm Coleman for the U.S. Senate, what could make a turbulent campaign of celebrity vs. celebrity vs. vulnerable incumbent.

In an interview with Variety, Ventura outlines his campaign plans and strategy. All he has to do is decide to actually run. He has until Tuesday to do so. The print column is here.

Meanwhile, a piece of news since the column went to press. Ventura's 1998 campaign manager, Dean Barkley, left a private sector job this week, but it's unclear if that means that he's preparing to go to work for Ventura or if he's about to get into the race himself. Barkley, after all, would be running for his old seat, as Ventura had appointed him in November, 2002 to fill the remainder of Paul Wellstone's term.

Barkley, right, thinks that Franken has run a "terrible race up until now," and thinks that the comedian "is trying to be something that he is not."

Barkley would come into the race with a unique platform, sort of California in reverse: He wants to outlaw all marriage, noting that "over half the people aren't married" and many of the couples he knows who are are not happy.

"I would get 75% of the vote," he says.

Still no comment from either the Franken or Coleman campaigns.

"Access Hollywood" and The Big Get

Updated

All week, as "Access Hollywood" has aired its exclusive interview with the Obama family bit by bit over four nights, seasoned political pros have watched with a combination of envy and scorn.

There was the familiar refrain, Well, of course they would do "Access Hollywood..." --- an unabashedly soft news show that, along with "Entertainment Tonight" and "The Insider" and "Extra," are now regular parts of campaigns' media agendas. Strategists are learning to capitalize on showbiz magazine shows and late night talk in the same way that Ronald Reagan's team mastered photo ops a generation ago.

But the gripes over the interview extended to another argument: The Obamas were putting their kids in the limelight, after initially saying they would not. The candidate himself expressed regret that they brought in the children.

Yet in an exclusive interview with Tammy Haddad's National Journal radio show today, correspondent Maria Menounos and "Access" senior news producer Steve Forrest dispute the notion that the Obamas were exploiting the kids for political gain. (The transcript of the interview is here).

Menounos tells Haddad, "I think that's totally wrong. They did not exploit their children. If anybody was there, like we were, they would know. It just was something that just happened. It was everyone feeling comfortable. ....And, you know, everyone's trying to justify why, you know, they didn't get it. When we don't say anything when they get big interviews. Like we're not like, "Oh, they went to this show because of XY and Z." Let things be."

In fact, there was no magic trick. As they explain to Haddad, Menounos and Forrest landed the interview with a combination of persistence and luck. The former came from months of inquiries to the Obama campaign; the latter came from the fact that Sasha and Malia had a good rapport with Menounos and her business partner, Kevin Undergarro, and that the kids were fans of "Access Hollywood."

By the time that Barack and Michelle Obama sat down for the interview, Menounos says, "all of a sudden they showed up and they popped some mikes on and we had known at that point, just minutes before the interview, that the girls may join to talk about the Jonas Brothers, because they were big fans of the Jonas Brothers, they knew that they were on our show frequently."

A few months ago, I wrote of this phenomenon of the election cycle: shows that once covered Hollywood turning their attention to the 2008 race, to the point where not a week goes by where one candidate or another doesn't appear on "ET" or "Access."  Campaigns have woken up to the fact that it is a way to reach audiences that they otherwise may not, and that they have a much better shot at getting a flattering story out of it.

Indeed, watching the Menounos interview, it's hard not to like the Obamas, to the point where even cyncial eyes may have trouble controlling the "awwww..." at the sugary parts. There was not a hard hitting question in the bunch. "Do you get ragged on a lot?"  Menounos asks the candidate, after some teasing from Malia and Sasha and Michelle.

Menounos, and producers from "Access" and other shows, don't purport to be anything other than soft news and softball questions. They make Jay Leno look like a polemic, and oddly enough, the interviews are perhaps so soft there is still something that makes me want to watch.

The hard vs. soft debate is beside the point. As Menounos tells Haddad, what else other than a soft question is she going to ask the Obama children? What they are presenting is the candidate in a different environment than you'd see elsewhere. If "Access Hollywood" non-political viewers want to know about Brad and Angelina's fashion sense or what the Jonas brothers are up to, why shouldn't they at least get some exposure to the family that may occupy the White House?

The "Access" team knows that they are part of a campaign's media gameplan, showing the human sides of their candidates. They are also aware that this year, candidates sell, as ratings for "Access" have been up 20% this week, Forrest told Haddad.

That is especially irksome for a reporter who has been on the trail from the start, waiting for any kind of extended sitdown. But the fact is "Access" got the big get, and unless the Obamas have lost all sense of proportion, it is unlikely that the family will appear together for an interview again this campaign.

In a year where so many media rules have been rewritten, these star-driven shows are now a part of the process, like it or not.

The Obama family interviews on "Access Hollywood" are here.

Obama Hubris

The Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan, long a champion of Barack Obama, fears that his move of his convention-night acceptance speech to a stadium and his agreement to put his entire family to "Access Hollywood" are troubling signs of cockiness.

He writes, "I can barely credit that Michelle Obama agreed to this and that Barack Obama went along with it - it's not what they would have done a few months ago. One great aspect of the Obama marriage has been the way in which they appear to have brought up their daughters as very regular girls, down-to-earth, normal and sane. Displaying them in this way was bad judgment and poor parenting. Fame is a toxin. Children deserve to be protected from it as much as they would from lead paint.

"Any one of these misjudgments would be a trivial lapse - and we all make mistakes. It's the combination that concerns me - and the possibility that this campaign is becoming far too cocky for its own good."

My take: Look back to all of the critical missteps throughout the '08 campaigns --- Hillary as inevitable, Giuliani as inevitable --- and it all seems to come down to arrogance or hubris. That's one of the biggest dangers facing Obama, and there will be plenty more talk of it if his fund-raising numbers for June don't exceed expectations. (McCain and the GOP upped the ante today: $95 million at the end of June). And Angela Merkel's reservations to the suggestion of an Obama speech at the Brandenberg Gate may save him from a big misstep. It may be just the thing that starts a backlash.

Rove Refuses

Updated

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

As expected, Karl Rove cited executive privilege and ignored a House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing today on the panel's investigation as to whether politics influenced the Justice Department's case against former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman. Siegelman's story was profiled on "60 Minutes" last year. The committee may now move to find Rove, now a Fox News analyst, in contempt.

More on Jesse: The StarTribune in Minneapolis says that a three-way Coleman-Franken-Ventura race for U.S. Senate would be a "battle royale" in a race that was starting to tilt the incumbent's way.

The Strib reports, "Ventura "is the ultimate anti-establishment vote," said Jennifer Duffy, Senate analyst for the Cook Political Report in Washington. Duffy still has Minnesota rated a tossup for the Senate race, but said she is close to moving it into the "leans Republican" category. A formal Ventura candidacy "would seal the deal," she said.

"Duffy and other analysts say Franken could suffer the most from an insurgent candidate such as Ventura, who would challenge his hold on the anti-Iraq war constituency."

Republican Celebrities: The Strib also sizes up the prospects for star power at the GOP Convention in St. Paul, given the Dems dominance of Hollywood. So far, the most likely attendee is Melissa Gilbert, who will be in the Twin Cities that week performing a stage version of "Little House on the Prairie" at the Guthrie.

"Predator" Politics: Don Frederick writes in The Los Angeles Times' Top of the Ticket that yet another performer in the 1986 action pic "The Predator" is seeking office, adding to the list that already includes Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ventura. Actor Sonny Landham is collecting signatures in Kentucky to run as a Libertarian candidate against Sen. Mitch McConnell. One analyst says Landham, also a former porn actor, could pull enough votes from McConnell to help Democratic challenger Bruce Lunsford.

McCain on "Conan": John McCain guests on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" on July 18, making it his third appearance on the show.

Report: Obama Fund-raising "a Little Slow"

Huffington Post's Sam Stein reports that donors to Barack Obama's campaign were told at a New York fund-raising event that efforts were a "little slow," to the point that they are being urged to help retire Hillary Clinton's campaign debt so her donors will be more willing to contribute.

Clinton and Obama appeared at a joint fund-raiser on Wednesday night.

Stein also quotes a Clinton donor as saying that there has been some bumps along the way in merging the two camps:

"For better or worse, the Clinton people are used to being courted, and the Obama folks have just a different philosophy," said the donor. "Some of the Clinton people have gotten demanding. Some of them wanted titles, and I think that is totally inappropriate. Why should any Clinton person get to jump ahead of any Obama folks? They want jobs, they want recognition, they want to be in the paper. They want to be considered for an ambassadorship. It is all about ego."

It is not much of a surprise, as even back in May there was some concern over how the two operations would be brought together. Expect a lot of attention to the Obama's camp's June fund-raising numbers, which are due later this month.

Although it may not be true in Hollywood, there is this report from the Center for Responsive Politics: "Hillary Clinton's endorsement of Barack Obama last month may not have been enough to win over some of her biggest donors. It seems Obama is struggling to gain favor with Clinton's financial supporters, while Republican John McCain is having some luck with them."

According to the Wall Street Journal, one of Clinton's Hillraisers, Daphna Ziman, "hosted a conference call of some 70 political activists from around the country, spurred by what she and others on the call saw as the media's sexism during the campaign." They plan to start a new political action committee focused on women's issues and have launched an effort to help Clinton retire her campaign debt.

Attacking Michelle O

Brave New Films, the production firm led by Robert Greenwald, has introduced a new Web video, "Sorry Fox, We Won't Let You Trash Michelle Obama."

Like his past films that take aim at Fox News, Greenwald's new vid culls footage from the news net to infer that there's a concerted effort to label Michelle Obama as bitter, angry and unpatriotic.

Jesse Jackson's Comments

As one editor here noted: how could an unabashed Democratic liberal like Jesse Jackson think he was having anything resembling a private conversation at Fox News headquarters?

Jackson was caught on mic saying that Obama was "talking down" to black people, apparently via his faith based initiative. But that was just part of it. Variety's William Triplett reports that the remarks (Jackson said he wanted "to cut his [Barack Obama's] nuts out") were so crude that CNN's Wolf Blitzer told viewers of "The Situation Room" that he couldn't repeat them on air.

Also a mystery is why Jackson was so worked up now over Obama's criticism of absentee fathers and broken families, given that the candidate has been using such rhetoric in speeches for quite some time. Obama also has long admonished parents for feeding their children junk food or plopping them down in front of video games and the TV set.

''There's a reason why our families are in disrepair," Obama said in a Father's Day speech at Apostolic Church of God on Chicago's South Side. "And some of it has to do with a tragic history, but we can't keep on using that as an excuse. Too many fathers are AWOL, missing from too many lives and too many homes. They've abandoned their responsibilities. They're acting like boys instead of men."

Obama's speeches in black churches, in fact, have echoes of Bill Cosby, who has come under criticism from some African-American leaders for attacking absentee fathers and not government or society as a whole.

Writes James Cobb, professor of history at the University of Georgia, "Although Obama is likely to be more vocal about issues of racial discrimination as president than he has been as a candidate, his speeches about the importance of strong families and the responsibilities of parenthood carry a decided echo of the gospel according to a certain Mr. Cosby. In this sense, instead of sparking a revolution in black political strategies and agendas, an Obama presidency might simply lend further weight to increasingly frequent suggestions that the old knee-jerk response of treating most difficulties facing black Americans as a product of white racism has long since grown stale and counterproductive." (Via Daily Dish).

Video of Jackson's comments here.

A New Hurdle for Al Franken: Jesse Ventura?

Updated

Is a celebrity candidate about to trump another celebrity candidate's political aspirations?

That may be in the works in Minnesota, when satirist Al Franken's campaign to unseat incumbent Norm Coleman for a U.S. Senate seat could be shaken by the entrance of former Gov. Jesse Ventura in the race.

Ventura has until Tuesday to decide whether to enter the contest running as a member of the Independence Party, and he's encouraged by recent polls showing him drawing one-quarter of the votes in a three-person race.

He tells Variety, "When I ran for governor [in 1998], the weekend before the election, I was only polling 27. so I am only three points off what I was when I won. And we haven't even had a debate yet."

If he gets in, Ventura would capitalize on voter anger and protest, perhaps peeling away support from Franken, who is trailing Coleman in polls by anywhere from three to 10 percentage points.

"If Jesse Ventura jumps in the race, I think Al Franken's already challenged candidacy is on ice," says University of Minnesota political science professor Lawrence Jacobs. "Maybe the ice thaws, but Franken's prospects depend on voters who are angry or disaffected by the incumbent and are choosing to vote for him. If Ventura jumps in the race, he is going to drain away some of the anti-incumbent vote that Franken would get."

A spokesman for Franken did not return calls for comment.

As an alternative to a gubernatorial bid, Ventura says he is mulling some "irons in the fire" in Los Angeles. But he's been an emerging presence in the media, as he has just come off tour of his most recent book, "Don't Start the Revolution Without Me!," and certainly the attention doesn't hurt.

"It is a complete change of life for me, but I am not sure I want to make that change, make that commitment," Ventura says. "But if I do, rest assured, I will go out there with revolution on my mind, like my book says. I will be the biggest pain in the ass they have ever had on the Senate floor. That is my goal, because I don't like the system, and I don't like the fact that they have put us $9 trillion in debt."

In an interview on Tuesday for an upcoming print column, he sounded like a candidate, ready to needle his opponents at every turn. He mapped out a renegade campaign strategy in which he would raise money on the Internet yet not spend more than $1 million for his bid. "I will not spend more than I earn," he says, "and that gives me I think a million dollar cap, because the salary for a senator is 170,000."

Instead, he would depend in part on a bang up performance in a debate with Coleman and Franken, confronting them on what he characterizes as a corrupt two-party system and their drawbacks as politicians.

Conventions Curtailed

The broadcast networks are considering the option of anchoring coverage of the Democratic National Convention from some location in Denver other than the site of the event, the Pepsi Center.

According to the Politico, that is one of several alternatives being talked about after Barack Obama's decision to accept the nomination at the much larger Invesco Field.

David Paul Kuhn writes, "The latter possibility — anchoring from somewhere in Denver other than the Pepsi Center or Invesco Field — would save money for the networks on expensive cabling fees, large set costs, staging and staffing, and would allow the networks to plan for the convention with significantly more independence from the convention staff, a pleasing notion to the networks.

"Already, the planner added, “we’ve been searching for cost cuts everywhere” to “find money in little places to avoid cutting major election night needs.”"

The irony is that the networks have been looking to capitalize on the intense interest in this year's election, with record ratings for presidential debates. There's been thinking that perhaps ratings would improve for the conventions, which have for years free of much drama and have been all but advertisements for the party standard bearer.

Obama's plans to give his nomination speech at Invesco Field also raise already high expectations for him to deliver a knockout performance, and there will be plenty of comparisons to the oratory he gave in 2004, when he was just an Illinois state senator.

Clinton Spokesman Joins Fox News

Clinton communications czar Howard Wolfson is joining Fox News as a commentator, where he will be up against Karl Rove in sizing up the presidential race.

There was a point in the election contest --- a point that seems eons ago --- when the Democrats were shunning the network, with the Democratic National Committee refusing to sanction Fox News sponsored debates. Their gripes weren't over doctored photos but a perception of bias in its "fair and balanced coverage.

But that informal boycott ended by the fall, when Hillary Clinton appeared on "Fox News Sunday" and Barack Obama gave interviews to Fox reporters in the field. The candidates later made numerous appearances on the news channel, and by the middle of the primaries, the Clinton team was even praising it for its coverage.

“I thought that Fox’s coverage during the primary was comprehensive and fair and evenhanded,” Wolfson told the New York Times. “It’s a huge audience, and it is important to have a strong, progressive voice on the network.”

Meanwhile, Variety's William Triplett reports that Barack Obama's decision to hold his acceptance speech at Denver's Invesco Field instead of the Pepsi Center is creating a headache for the cable and broadcast nets, who are talking about pooling coverage of the final night event. What's more, the added expense may cause the broadcast nets to scale back coverage of the first three nights of the convention.

The last time the broadcast nets provided gavel-to-gavel coverage of the conventions was in 1980 --- which is also the last time there was some real drama on the convention floor.

Obama Leads (Again) in H'w'd Fund-raising

The latest campaign finance reports show Barack Obama once again led all other candidates in money raised from the entertainment business, collecting more than five times the amount raised by John McCain.

As of the end of May, Obama had raised $4.2 million from entertainment sources, with McCain far behind at $736,246, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Hillary Clinton, who was still in the race, had collected $3.5 million by the end of the month.

Overall, fund-raising was down for all candidates. Obama collected only about $200,000 more in May from movies, TV, and music donors, and McCain picked up about $100,000. Clinton raised about $115,000 in the industry in the final weeks of her race.

Outfest Tackles 2008

This year's Outfest --- the gay and lesbian film festival in Los Angeles that opens on Wednesday --- will have a political bent with a Saturday event called Queer State of the Nation.

Political fund-raiser and Obama campaign adviser Jeremy Bernard, the Courage Campaign's Rick Jacobs and state Sen. Sheila Kuehl highlight a Saturday panel on gay and lesbian rights this election year, and will be joined by Dan Butler, director of the entry "Karl Rove, I Love You," and Julie Sohn of "Ask Not." Kyle Buchanan, film critic for the Advocate, will moderate.

A Fourth of July Family Poll: Obama Holds Wide Lead

All week I have been in the Minneapolis suburb of Golden Valley, for my family's annual Fourth of July holiday party. As is the case every year, the highlight of the holiday was a very large backyard fireworks display over Rice Lake to the sound of "Stars and Stripes Forever," a well-choreographed show that was financed by some tax rebate checks.

Naturally, politics was on the minds of most of those here, and it is perhaps safe to say that not too many are teeming with excitement over the pending Republican National Convention in St. Paul.

That's because I conducted a "Presidential Preference Poll," and Obama won handily among all friends and family gathered.

Some background: I come from a big family --- ten kids. My parents are centrist/liberal, and my father long has had a contrarian penchant for voting for Eugene McCarthy and when McCarthy got too old to to be viable, for Ralph Nader. My mother this year is a big Obama supporter, so I had to keep the presidential preference poll a secret ballot. Otherwise, any McCain supporter among her kids would face heavy lobbying at the very least and ostracism in the extreme.

The results? I did do a breakdown, and in the immediate family (brothers and sisters and parents), Obama collected nine votes, McCain garnered one and there was one holdout for Hillary Clinton. The latter came from my father, who came clean late in the evening; my mother is still trying to track down the lone McCain vote.

Overall, Obama was the favorite of 37 at the party; McCain collected 11 votes; and Clinton one. Three attendees were undecided, and one in-law cast a ballot for my mother.

Obama led across all generations and demo groups. McCain's strength was among friends of the family, who, sensing they were outnumbered, largely kept their mouths shut about politics for most of the evening.

For the record, in the interest of neutrality, I did not vote.

Davis Guggenheim Directing Obama Film

The Obama press contingent was abuzz last night with the news that Davis Guggenheim, the Oscar-winning director of "An Inconvenient Truth," has apparently been enlisted to direct Barack Obama's biographical convention film.

The news was leaked via a pool report gathered during Obama's appearance in Butte, Montana, for Independence Day.

The report states, "Davis Guggenheim spoke briefly to your pooler before realizing he shouldn't be. He then said he was merely traveling with his son in Montana and doing some interviews. He promised to speak more after he consulted with the campaign."

Guggenheim's father, Charles, was a famous documentarian who won four Oscars, including "Robert Kennedy Remembered," a tribute film that was shown at the 1968 Democratic convention and went on to win an Academy Award for short subject.

Although presidential campaigns have a tenuous history of drawing on Hollywood talent to craft their messages and images, they do often seek the industry's top creative minds to produce convention films. Harry Thomason produced Bill Clinton's "Man from Hope" in 1992, and James Moll directed John Kerry's film short in 2004, with an assist from Steven Spielberg.

Perhaps most infamously, Spike Jonze, fresh off of "Being John Malkovich," directed Al Gore's convention film in 2000 (below), although the campaign never screened it again in what some of the helmer's adherents insist could have better humanized the candidate and perhaps changed the results of the race. Jonze, who had merely followed Gore around with a video camera, released the movie in 2006, the first time it had been seen by a wide audience since the convention.

As you can see, the Gore film did capture some of the candidate's irrereverence, something that rarely came across on the campaign trail but was captured in Guggenheim's "Truth."

Streisand for Obama

There had been little doubt that Barbra Streisand would endorse Barack Obama. Before she came out for Hillary Clinton, she had contributed to his campaign and even attended one of his fund-raisers, where she chatted up Obama and even gave him a hug.

Streisand writes on her Website, "Barack has awakened in many of us the notion that we can again be hopeful, enabling us to believe that we are capable of lifting our brothers and sisters out of poverty, of providing quality education for all our children, of ending this unjust war in Iraq and bringing our troops home safely. He’s reminded us ‘yes we can’…we can make the transition from fossil fuels to green energy; we can take care of our elderly and make sure that good healthcare is not just a perk for a few, but a right for every man, woman and child. We are experiencing not just a presidential campaign, but a movement; a movement of inspired young people who have been cynical about politics for too long."

There is no word yet on whether Streisand will perform at an Obama event. Back in 2004, she sang with Neil Diamond at a fund-raising concert for John Kerry at Disney Hall in downtown Los Angeles.

Obama's "Disconnect"

CBN's David Brody writes that just as Barack Obama has been courting evangelical voters with a speech on faith today, his campaign has been handing out pro-gay rights flyers at a gay pride festival in St. Louis.

Brody writes, "Obama has passed the first hurdle by engaging people of faith and being willing to discuss his faith openly. He has passed with flying colors. But now comes the hard part. It’s called scrutiny. His political opponents believe that once Evangelicals really get a handle on what Obama is all about policy wise, then they’ll be turned off and they won’t buy in to the lofty rhetoric.
Handing out pro-gay rights flyers while at the same time talking about your “Christian faith” is a MAJOR disconnect for not only conservative Evangelicals but for some of those Independent voting, moderate leaning working class folks in the rust belt. It doesn’t play well."

He adds, "Let’s face it. Talking about fighting genocide in Darfur, poverty in America, global warming and promoting faith based groups are all well and good but will it be enough to make a dent in the Evangelical vote when his full record is exposed? Evangelicals will need ALL the information out there to make an informed decision."

Yet Obama is hardly hiding his position on gay rights. His campaign has been out in force at Pride festivals across the country, and the candidate has been upfront about mentioning gays in his speeches and before some audiences of African-American ministers. Brody may be right about certain conservative evangelicals and working class voters, but the idea that a candidate can't talk about his Christian faith while at the same time supporting gay rights strikes me not as a "disconnect" but a narrow way of looking at the electorate that has confounded Democratic candidates in the past few cycles.

The Center of the World

Updated

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

I'm in my hometown of Minneapolis this week, so posting will be a little less than usual...

Barack Obama's move to the center --- on gun rights, NAFTA and other issues --- is stirring up MoveOn and other liberal groups, as well as Arianna Huffington, who has seen this pattern before in the Gore and Kerry campaigns.

She writes on HuffingtonPost today, "The Obama brand has always been about inspiration, a new kind of politics, the audacity of hope, and "change we can believe in." I like that brand. More importantly, voters -- especially unlikely voters -- like that brand.

"Pulling it off the shelf and replacing it with a political product geared to pleasing America's vacillating swing voters -- the ones who will be most susceptible to the fear-mongering avalanche that has already begun -- would be a fatal blunder."

In other words, remember what President Bush said in 2004: "You may not agree with me, but you know where I stand."

 

Obama's campaign announced a continuation of Presdent Bush's "faith-based initiative, in an effort by the candidate to lure evangelical voters from John McCain.

What could be next? If the past is any guide, look for Obama to turn his aim on Hollywood's production of violent movies and videogames. He already makes a point of calling for parents to turn off the TV sets and game consoles.

"W" On the Set: The Los Angeles Times visits the set of Oliver Stone's "W."

The Vow: Stephen Baldwin says he'll leave the U.S. is Obama is elected.

Rob Reiner: "Obama Will Win By a Landslide"

Rob Reiner was one of Hillary Clinton's biggest boosters in Hollywood. he campaigned for her. He raised money for her. He even was quite outspoken about her chances of winning compared to that other candidate --- right down to her electoral vote strength.

Things change, to use a favorite buzzword.

In an interview with Jeffrey Ressner of The Politico, Reiner predicts, "I think Obama will win by a landslide. The country is tired of the direction it’s been going in. It may be disingenuous to talk about McCain as a third Bush term, but essentially there’s not much difference between him and Bush on the key issues such as the economy and the war in Iraq. I think people are tired of the Republican brand and want a real change. Our stock in the world is as low as it’s ever been, we have a major health care crisis, we have a major economic crisis and we have a major energy crisis. And we need real leadership."

With Obama and Clinton making their first joint appearance together in New Hampshire, Reiner appeared on "Larry King Live" on Friday to talk about Democratic unity, and visited Obama headquarters last weekend to meet with policy advisers, although he has not yet talked to the candidate.

If Obama wins, Reiner predicts a great deal of interaction between the candidate and Hollywood, like the days of the Clinton presidency.

"You’d have the same thing, absolutely. There’d be the same kind of love and respect, but I think you’d have it even bigger. With someone like Obama, I think the whole country, the whole world will coalesce. Every election is about change, and change takes a long time because there are big issues that can’t be changed overnight. But the one thing that will change dramatically is how we’re viewed around the world. Once Obama is in there, the world will view us in an entirely different light. And that, to me, is a good thing."

Virginia Madsen's Vote

Throughout the primary season, Virginia Madsen was caught between supporting Clinton or backing Obama  --- that is, until she turned on the TV to the news "Clinton exit."

"I was really upset," she says. "I was like, 'Oh, no. I didn't want her to leave. Maybe I really was for her.'"

Madsen is now backing Obama, but she is spending the rest of the election season traveling the country as part of a nonpartisan voter registration effort sponsored by the League of Women Voters and Allergan, the makers of Botox.

As such, she is part of an extensive effort among a handful of stars who are taking part in voter registration efforts through such orgs as Declare Yourself and Choose or Lose.

Madsen calls McCain "an honorable man" and an "exciting candidate," but "I have real differences" on issues like the war in Iraq and the environment.

While she is encouraged about the level of interest in this year's race, she worries a bit about negative campaigning adding a level of cynicism to the process.

"The way that McCain campaigned in his primary, that kind of honest straight talk, I really hope that will continue in the main election, because I think people have a lot of things they need to hear from these candidates," she says. "They don't need to hear them sniping at each other. Neither side needs a swift boat experience. What we need to hear from them are specific plans. Don't just tell me about your initiative or your plan for a tax break. Tell me how you are going to get it voted for."

Feeding into the negativity, she says, is the way that the media has covered aspects of the race.

"They have got to draw the line," she says. "Cindy McCain did a wonderful interview (on "Good Morning America") the other day and she said, 'There has got to be some decorum left in this process, especially with the news media, and she was so right.  And the reporter just kept pressing her and pressing her about her and Michelle Obama, and I thought it was outrageous and so sexist. I was really insulted that they tried to pit these two women against each other. Those two women are way too smart to engage in that kind of ridiculousness."

Madsen taped a PSA for the League's vote411.org site. So how did Botox get involved? It's one of a host of corporations, from Pizza Hut to IFC, jumping on the historic election bandwagon. And last year, Madsen served as a spokeswoman and met with groups of women to promote the safe use of the drug.

"You would get 200 women in a room and it would turn into this huge discussion," she says. "Many times the conversation would turn political."

She doubts, however, that Clinton's exit from the race slow their registration efforts.

"There are a lot of bruises that need to be healed, and I am really sorry about that," she says. "I think it is going to help once the two of them campaign together, once people see that they are the colleagues that they really are. They will see the reality of the relationship, and not the negativity that was created."

The Latest Column

Barack Obama's Hollywood and Los Angeles backers mount an organized effort to try to combat e-mail "smears" and what they call other misconceptions about his positions on Israel and the Middle East.

My latest column, appearing Sunday in the print edition of Variety, is here, and below:

An e-mail landed in the inboxes last week of many of Barack Obama's prominent Jewish supporters in Hollywood.

The message was a note from the campaign itself, including a set of instructions on how to tamp down the unending stream of e-mails aimed at Jewish voters casting doubt about the presumptive Democratic nominee.

The mobilization is test of how well the candidate's campaign can counter a narrative that Obama is weak on Israel and, by extension, national security. His opponent John McCain is capitalizing on such notions, particularly in wooing former supporters of Hillary Clinton.

Few would argue that Obama will dominate support in the entertainment business -- a stronghold of Democrats and of supporters of Jewish causes. To Obama backers, the stream of viral rumors and misinformation lies at the heart of his Jewish "problem" -- in quote marks because, after all, a Gallup poll on June 26 showed him favored nationwide by Jewish supporters 62% vs. 29% for McCain. But the level of support could make a difference in certain battleground states.

Perceptions of candidates in the age of the Internet can't simply be addressed by a 30-second ad spot or even a press release. Rather, Obama's camp is looking to the grassroots to take it upon themselves.

The GOP continues to seize on the fact that Obama is new and untested, and in their eyes, a blank slate.

That is particularly resonant when it comes to Israel, which Cal State political science professor Raphael J. Sonenshein wrote recently in the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles is "the all-purpose mantra of embattled Republicans."

In another article, Sonenshein wrote, "McCain offers the Republican brand identification on foreign policy and on Israel, years of familiarity to the Jewish community and the help of independent, former Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut. Obama is still making himself known."

On June 16, entertainment figures like Jeffrey Katzenberg, Michael Lynton and Mike Medavoy, as well as politicians and other business leaders, gathered at the Beverly Hills home of longtime Democratic activist Carmen Warschaw in the first meeting of the Obama Los Angeles Jewish Community Leadership Committee, a campaign-sanctioned effort created in part to stem what they say are misperceptions.

"There has been a persistent effort to undermine and distort (Obama's) record early on," former Rep. Mel Levine, who presided over the meeting with Rep. Howard Berman (D-Los Angeles), told Variety. "Our goal is to get the facts out, and as they get out, his support in the community will grow."

Even though the e-mail rumors have abated in recent months, the day after the meeting at Warschaw's home I got a message that linked to an article in the Israeli Insider in which Obama's half-brother is quoted as stating that the candidate was raised as a Muslim, something that the Obama camp has repeatedly dismissed.

Obama's team is requesting that committee members alert them of such e-mails, direct people to the campaign's "stop the smears" page on its Website and distribute a video of Obama's recent speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

Distributed at the Beverly Hills gathering was a set of "talking points." Among them: refuting notions that Obama supports former President Jimmy Carter's recent meeting with Hamas, or distancing the candidate from the Carter administration's national security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, who has also urged direct talks with Hamas.

"Our campaign does not call him an advisor, nor does he call himself one," the flyer states, noting that the candidate and Brzezinski have spoken about the Iraq War, but that Obama does "not share his view on Israel."

That's a distinction that doesn't bear weight for some of McCain's Hollywood backers, who say Obama's problems are more substantial than rumors and can't be solved by forming a committee or battling e-mails.

Obama "continues to do things that trouble many members of the Jewish community, and beyond that members of the Christian community and others as well," says writer-director Lionel Chetwynd. "The people who are around him just seems troubling."

So far, though, there are few indications that many of Clinton's prominent Jewish supporters in the industry are ready to bolt for McCain over Israel, even though some of her fervent fund-raisers, like Haim Saban, have yet to publicly declare what they are going to do. Such politically active figures as Ron Silver and writer-director David Zucker left the Democratic party, but they did so years ago, after 9/11 and the national security debate that followed.

Instead, the effort may say more about the campaign itself and its ability to match nuance with nuance as supporters and donors "look to see if they are organized for every potential challenge," notes Donna Bojarsky, a public affairs consultant to those in the industry. A Jewish community leader who supported Clinton in the primaries, she is now backing Obama.

"If he is being virally pilloried, it makes sense that they nip it in the bud," she says. "It could be a textbook example in how they run a campaign."

Well Deserved

A special shout out today to two longtime friends being honored today at Los Angeles City Hall: Daily News columnist Greg Hernandez, who writes the Out in Hollywood blog, and In Los Angeles journalist Karen Ocamb.

Both are being recognized as part of the City Council's annual LGBT Pride Month Celebration for their contributions to the community.

Music to His Ears

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

With Barack Obama on the cover, the new Rolling Stone features several stories on his campaign, including one that looks at his advantage in winning over the support of musicians. "I've got to say, having both Dylan and Bruce Springsteen say kind words about you is pretty remarkable," he tells Jann Wenner. "Those guys are icons."

He adds, "I've got probably 30 Dylan songs on my iPod. I think I have the entire 'Blood on the Tracks' album on there. Actually, one of my favorites during the political season is "Maggie's Farm." It speaks to me as I listen to some of the political rhetoric."

Surprise Position: Obama does not support the re-imposition of the Fairness Doctrine, amidst rumblings on Capitol Hill that the Democratic Congress would try to bring it back in some form.

"He considers this debate to be a distraction from the conversation we should be having about opening up the airwaves and modern communications to as many diverse viewpoints as possible," an Obama spokesman told B&C. "That is why Sen. Obama supports media-ownership caps, network neutrality, public broadcasting, as well as increasing minority ownership of broadcasting and print outlets."

Abandoned during the Reagan era, the doctrine required broadcasters to air alternative points of view. Its removal is credited with giving rise to conservative talk radio in the 90s.

Addled by Atwater: Jeffrey Ressner writes in the Politico that some who knew Lee Atwater are taking exception to “Boogie Man," a new doc on the late Republican strategist. GOP political consultant Mike Murphy called it "a pejorative, liberal cartoon."

Convention Countdown

Plans for parties and promotion are firming up for this year's Democratic and Republican conventions.

On Wednesday, MySpace and NBC News announced a Decision '08 contest in which MySpace users over the age of 18 can submit short video pieces that will be whittled down to five finalists. The winner will be selected by the MySpace community, and a final two winners will get picked. One will go to the DNC and the other to the RNC. In their two-minute videos, the entrants are required to answer one of three questions: "Why do you vote?" or "Why are you the best person for this job?" or "How will you stand out in the crowd and get the scoop no one else can?" The winners will visit NBC News in the convention halls, although it's unclear if they'll be put to work.

The Creative Coalition announed earlier this week its entertainment for two concerts at each respective event: The Charlie Daniels Band will perform at the RNC and the Black Eyed Peas at the DNC.

And Comcast has pacted with the Democratic National Convention Committee to stream online content from the gathering in English and Spanish. The streaming will appear on DemConvention.com, and Comcast also plans coverage on its video-on-demand platform.

Clear Channel Rejects Harry Shearer's Bush Ad

Harry Shearer wanted to promote his upcoming CD "Songs from the Bushmen" --- with satircal songs about President Bush --- on a dozen billboards in the Chicago market.

Initially excited by the prospect of new business, Clear Channel Outdoor account execs quickly changed their tune when it saw the ad: a picture of Bush with a bone through his nose. "Due to the content, Clear Channel will not accept the creative," an account exec wrote in an e-mail. It was resubmitted, but rejected again, citing the "pictoral content."

Shearer was surprised that the ad was rejected, even from Clear Channel. Anti-war groups have accused the conglomerate of rejecting anti-war ads critical of Bush, and the likes of Howard Stern and Cindy Sheehan have charged that the company has stifled their speech. But the company is in the midst of a sale to two private equity firms.

"I guess somewhere along the line, I thought that as [Clear Channel] was going through the process of being sold, they had to remove themselves from some of the crankier parts of family ownership," Shearer says.

Clear Channel has rejected charges of censorship in the past, and even set up a Website to dispute claims. A company source told the Chicago Sun-Times that they "cannot be seen as promoting political views of any kind." The source said, "No matter what I personally think of President Bush, this pictoral representation went over the line, in our opinion."

Yet Shearer didn't find anything particularly over the top. "This falls into the category of what Donald Rumsfeld would call 'the deadenders'," he quips.

He says that compared to other depictions of Bush or, going back in time a bit, Lyndon Johnson during the Vietnam War, "There have been powerful and more offensive images than this."

Plans were for a teaser billboard displaying just the image, to be followed the next week by text explaining what it is.

"I thought it was powerful enough to stand on its own, to be provocative and get people talking," Shearer says.

Now he appears to have fallen into the trap of media consolidation: The only other major billboard firm offering digital display is CBS, and he doesn't think they have them in the Windy City.

Obama's Big Haul

Organizers expect to have raised about $5 million at Barack Obama's Tuesday night fund-raiser at the Los Angeles Music Center, which drew about 700 people including stars and industry moguls.

Here's my coverage for Variety here.

The venue was a bit different for a fund-raiser --- the second-floor reception area of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, which, with its crystal chandeliers and gold plated columns, has a 1960s regency elegance to it.

The audience was in full attention (i.e. they put down their Blackberries) when Obama spoke, but his remarks largely stayed to the script of his stump speech, but they were still enthusiastic.

By the time Obama spoke, stars were scattered throughout the crowd, but Obama called attention to one of them when he made special mention of one of his Southern California finance co-chairs, Nicole Avant. She was standing on an above balcony next to Samuel L. Jackson.

Camped outside was a row of about 10 different news crews, ready to get comment from any notable as if it were the red carpet on Oscar night. The bullhorn chants of anti-abortion protesters, however, may have drowned out any interviews.

Dennis Quaid (right), who delivered short remarks, noted that he had been voting for Republicans before switching sides this year, and that his entire household was going for Obama, even his baby twins.

The most distinctive outfit: Will.i.am, who wore "an ivory colored silk suit, porkpie hat and a pair of Nike air shoes emblazoned with Obama's visage and the Obama 08 logo."

Some of the biggest cheers went to Seal when he did a rendition of Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come."

The lingering question was who from the Clinton camp would show up, and Obama made an extra effort to praise the New York senator (below).

The biggest Clinton backer present: Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who attended the VIP dinner but did not introduce Obama. That honor fell to state Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, who said that some of her fellow lawmakers told her last year that Obama had no chance of winning.

Guests each were given Obama posters done by artist Shepard Fairey, who also was present.

By the way, apologies for the picture quality.

Obama's Hollywood Night

Sugar Ray Leonard and Jennifer Beals are the latest boldfaced names expected on Tuesday afternoon for Barack Obama's fund-raiser at the Los Angeles Music Center.

Also on the guest list are Dennis Quaid, Heidi Klum, Sidney Poitier, Cedric the Entertainer, Will.i.am and Kal Penn, as well as industry names like Ari Emanuel and Ron Meyer. Seal is scheduled to perform.

The big question is just how many of Hillary Clinton's high-profile fund-raisers will show up at the event, as the sting of her loss is still hardfelt in some quarters. Obama is expected to reach out to others, like media mogul Haim Saban, who raised more than $1 million for Clinton's campaign. Asked by the Los Angeles Times whether he planned to attend a meeting that Obama and Clinton are hosting on Thursday with her top money men, he sent back a terse reply: "No."

Rob Reiner, who had been publicly outspoken about her chances vis a vis Obama's, is on a family vacation and will not be at the fund raiser. but his political consultant, Chad Griffin, says that Reiner is pledging to wholeheartedly support Obama. After Obama secured the nomination, the director called campaign officials and some of his Hollywood supporters to offer congratulations, and visited the Democratic nominee-to-be's Chicago headquarters last weekend to meet with some policy officials.

Griffin, who plans to attend the Music Center event, said that he has not heard of any notable Los Angeles donors defecting to the McCain camp, and few if any are sitting on the sidelines.

But another Clinton fund-raiser, Sim Farar, planned to meet with John McCain during his visit to Santa Barbara on Tuesday, although Farar said that it was primarily as a courtesy.

Even though it is expected that Obama will vastly dominate his opponent Hollywood fund-raising, his Tuesday event is a contrast to the gala event that John Kerry held at the Music Center in June, 2004, a fete that drew comedy riffs from Billy Crystal, and Barbra Streisand performing a duet with Neil Diamond.

The Obama event was billed as a $2,300-per-person reception, not a concert, with a VIP dinner beforehand for donors who pay $28,500 per couple. The event is expected to draw from a cross section of well-heeled Angelenos, not just in entertainment, and some donors I talked to over the weekend said they were waiting for events later in the year. The three partners in DreamWorks, Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen, are hoping to host their own event, perhaps in the fall. And some of Obama's supporters say that his success at fund-raising has perhaps taken the onus off of staging a huge entertainment gala in order to lure donors.

Meanwhile, a concern among Obama's Hollywood and Los Angeles supporters is the flurry of e-mails and misinformation about the candidate's positions on Israel and the Middle East.

Last week, former Rep. Mel Levine and Rep. Howard Berman held the first organizing meeting of Obama's Los Angeles Jewish Community Leadership Committee in Beverly Hills, before a group that included such supporters as Jeffrey Katzenberg and Michael Lynton.

"There has been a persistent effort to undermine and distort [Obama's] record early on," Levine said. "Our goal is to get the facts out, and as they get out, his support in the community will grow."

Hollywood Preps for Obama

Barack Obama's fund-raiser at the Los Angeles Music Center on Tuesday is expected to draw a sizable contingent of stars and Hollywood executives, including Samuel L. Jackson, Seal, Heidi Klum, Sidney Poitier, Will.i.am, Cedric the Entertainer, Dennis Quaid and Kal Penn.

Also on the list are Ari Emanuel, Ron Meyer, Bryan Lourd, Mike and Irena Medavoy, Jim Wiatt and Sherry Lansing.

The reception and dinner will be the first time that Obama has visited Los Angeles since he became the presumptive nominee.

Of course, much attention will be on which forme