Yup.

I mean, what else are we supposed to take away from the constant repetition of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears close to his name and face?

That he likes white women and considers himself a white celebrity?

Huh? That's a whole other subject! I'm talking about Republican efforts to insinuate that Obama is gay (or that he embodies the stereotypically negative qualities associated with gay men--fussy, weak, etc.)! What do Paris and Brittney have to do with that?

For all of his talk about "straight talk," McCain's latest efforts to smear Obama are anything but straight. They're pathetic! And again I ask, where are the gay Republicans? Why are they silent?

The gay Republicans are silent because they're Republican first and gay second.

I understand the idea that Republicans have painted Obama and pretty much any other Democratic man as feminine/faggy; I mean, I worked for a month documenting the phenomenon.

The Britney/Paris ad is part of that cabal. The narrative is that Obama is like a celebrity, like Britney or Paris. It wasn't just that one ad, the comparison to female celebrities was also in a press release from the McCain campaign, a press conference with a McCain staffer, and even made an appearance in a Q&A with McCain (something along the lines of "like any celebrity, Obama becomes fussy and hysterical when presented with legitimate criticism").

There may have been a racial black man/white woman component to that ad, but it's also working on the new narrative, that Obama is a hysterical, air-headed, self-absorbed celeb, like two female celebrities, because women are hysterical, empty-headed, and self-absorbed.

Do we really think that the drumbeat, both verbal and visual, from the McCain campaign that Obama=Britney/Paris is only about race? Does the racial level even work without the visual cues? And does "fussy like Paris" conjure up fears that he's going to sleep with her?

- "The gay Republicans are silent because they're Republican first and gay second."

Or third, or fourth, or twelth. Gay Republican is an oxymoron, and I would never count on them to ever do anything positive for the gay community.

But I enjoyed the Miss Hathaway reference! I can't remember the last time I've heard one, unless you count Lily Tomlin playing her in the movie. That's self-referential, isn't it? ;-)

Were I Obama I would ask: "Is that all you have got when you have lost on the issues?"

I think the better question is why are these character attributes associated with Gay men? Why is "tough, cold and hyper efficient" (Ms Hathaway) associated with Lesbians? I have gotten so annoyed with popular culture generally that I have turned the TV off in disgust. Ordinary strong capable and proud Gay men and women are not "newsy" or extreme enough? We have lost sight of the great capable middle of our own experience in a constant search for some abstraction. I am sure that I am in the minority on this, but I found "Queer Eye" and "Runway" to be both boring and counterproductive to the understanding between people.

That said people should act in a manner that is natural to themselves without fear or presumption of their sexuality being tied to it. It is this overcompensation that leads to the incorrect assumption that: "Because all A's are definitely B all B's must be A."

I would be unconcerned if a president decided he liked to relax hooping rugs, making pottery, clearing brush, reading to his kids or playing the piano like that sissy Truman who dropped the first A Bomb.

And as to presidential qualifications Andrew Jackson liked cockfighting. That hardly made him a great president.

- "I would be unconcerned if a president decided he liked to relax hooping rugs, making pottery, clearing brush, reading to his kids or playing the piano like that sissy Truman who dropped the first A Bomb."

Wait a minute - W. likes to clear brush. I don't want another president who likes to clear brush.

No, I want him back in Texas clearing brush as soon as possible!