Yes, they got the signs made in time for the rally. But now you know it's official: the first licensed campaign merch with the full ticket. "First edition" car magnet yours for the low, low campaign donation of $15 -- that's $10 less than what they usually ask for! 

Nothing to see here: just Barack Obama and the fam enjoying a leisurely Fourth of July out in Montana.

In Butte, actually. Hmm. And then inexplicably a truck marked "Cox" rolls by.

Is this dude fucking with us?

(Equally inexplicable: the horrible cover band playing "Sweet Home Alabama." Dude, you're in Montana!)

Obama the Giant Has A Posse

Not bad for a guy who started out making "Andre the Giant Has A Posse" stickers, eh?

Today, the campaign of Barack H. Obama unveiled its newest campaign tool -- a limited (but not too limited) edition poster of the candidate designed by Shepard Fairey, the street-art provocateur who helped popularize the idea of brand-theft/street-art/anti-marketing as a swiss-army tool of urban resistance. Let's first say this about the Barack posters: they're pretty fucking cool. The one at top was unveiled by Fairey on his own site and sold out in seconds (b&W paster pdf is available here if you want it; it's also available as a t-shirt.). The one at bottom is coming soon to an Obama online marketplace near you.

Even more remarkable is the personal thank-you note he got from Obama, in which the candidate bravely ignores the political consequences of endorsing the defacement of public property. It reads, in part:

"Your images have a profound effect on people, whether seen in a gallery or on a stop sign. I am privileged to be a part of your artwork and proud to have your support." 

You heard it here first: Barack Obama, the wheat-paste candidate.

Although the Andre stickers were mainly a wacky RISD sk8er-boi in-joke at first, Fairey was able to speak enough artspeak to enough critics that he was granted his own artform. The idea of promoting something that doesn't exist is now so thoroughly ingrained in the culture (and on its lampposts) that it seems impossible to imagine a world without it. Fairey proved so good at promoting imaginary, anti-concept concepts that, inevitably, he was able to get lots of actual commercial work. Later, he developed a fetish for Soviet- and other mid-century Communist propoganda -- in the process further cementing some nice critic-friendly connections between consumer culture and totalitarian rule.

Here comes the punchline. Ready?

Shepard Fairey has now made the leap from making art about political propoganda to making political propoganda.

Without naming names, we will simply pause at this juncture to recall that history has not always been kind to artists who use their aesthetic talents in the service of coercive political messaging.

Then again, Mitt Romney had a posse first.

Here is Fairey's statement, courtesy of the Obama camp:

"I wanted to make an art piece of Barack Obama because I thought an iconic portrait of him could symbolize and amplify the importance of his mission. I believe Obama will guide this country to a future where everyone can thrive and I should support him vigorously for the sake of my two young daughters. I have made art opposing the Iraq war for several years, and making art of Obama, who opposed the war from the start, is like making art for peace. I know I have an audience of young art fans and I'm delighted I can encourage them to see the merits of Barack Obama."

We've admired Shephard's art for many years. Most recently, we jonsed severely for his MC5/White Panther Party streetwear line. But if you are the kind of person who just thought, "Shit, maybe they shouldn't be mentioning the words 'White Panther Party' and 'Barack Obama' in the same blog entry," then you understand why this whole thing is making us just a little bit uncomfortable.

Even the hacks at Fox News got the bulletin after last night's victory speeches: John McCain can stoop to stealing Barack's stump taglines, but nobody -- American hero or no -- wants to follow Obama. Yes, Hillary is losing the ground game . . . hard. But, as you can see above, what we're really all agog about is MSNBC enabling embeds on their news video. ALL YOUR VIDEOSES BELONGS TO US.

This morning's storylines:

- Obama steamrolls Clinton. Women, white dudes, lunchpail Dems: fired up, ready to go. [NYTimes, WashPost]
- In Virginia, a possible Ohio-of-2008, Obama picks up swing voters while McCain hemmorages indies [The Nation]
- Progressive women no longer feeling the "tug" of Hillary? [Slate]
- Why Black women vote Obama [The Root]
- Inside the Clinton campaign shakeup [Atlantic Monthly]

On the off chance you're one of the three people who hasn't seen the original, the above will be much funnier after you watch this.

One thing we're gonna miss about the Hollywood writers' strike: dudes are gonna have less time on their hands for stuff like this. We only wish Mitt had dropped out a week later, if only so we coulda heard Fred Armisen warble "I saw my dad march with MLK." 

See above for Lessig's endorsement, and here's Dave Matthews' letter. Neither of these guys, we should point out, are going to help Obama win swing votes in a general election. Republicans -- even moderate ones -- will read "Lessig" as "Egghead," and while Dave Matthews is beloved by all sorts of goons, some red staters inevitably among them, not even Dave Matthews fans are dumb enough to take voting advice from Dave Matthews. What's more, how long do you think it'll take Fox News to remember this incident? Same old story: those damn liberal artistes, shittin' on the common man . . .

When your political platform is "change", doesn't offering more of the same seem counter-intuitive? Apparently not to Barack Obama, who delivered his Super Tuesday pre-mortem speech from Boston last night, in front of a crowd that CNN called "a mosh pit" -- but which those of us who were actually on the floor called "a yawn fest". Don't believe everything you hear on TV: Barack may or may not be about to shock the world, but this prime-time appearance wasn't the slam-dunk the media made it out to be. Obama talked on and on . . . and on . . . about the same shit he always does, even cracking some of the same jokes he did the last time he was in Boston, rallying on the Common. Hey Barack, that one about you being related to Cheney? Heard it in the fall, buddy. And that one about Republicans whispering in your ear? Heard that one, too. Oh, and that one about how you are sick and tired of the current administration's policies, and you're going to end the war and boost health care initiatives, and you're the one candidate who can finally turn this country around? It's like an echo that tumbles infinitely in the eardrums of America.

Two hours earlier, standing in a sea of hipsters at South Station, waiting for the Silver Line to arrive, I could have been in the midst of a throng of Pill-heads en route to Great Scott. It was as if someone had substuted "Obama for Change" t-shirts and pins for cutesy-nerd glasses and ironic urban-outfitted faux vintage duds, as busload after busload of fresh young things headed to the World Trade Center to throw their hands in the air for the man of change himself. Stepping off by the WTC, I was greeted by signs that read "This Way For Change!" Wonder if the homeless folks were delighted, then, confused. 

Obama may talk a mean change game, but on the floor of the WTC, the biggest "change" of the evening was of the Pampers-and-powder variety. No joke: right on the floor, in the middle of the rally, some dude took the call literally, swapping his baby's dirty diaper for a clean one. Take that, politics! 

-- Sara Faith Alterman

Five worst quotes we heard last night:

5. New York Times on Grandmama Obama:
"It's pretty amazing to see her as she sorts her corn on the ground."

4. Douchebag local radio interns, heckling Hillary:
"Iron my shirt!"

3. Bill Bennett on John McCain's unlikely comeback:
"Here's a guy who's 71 years old, a guy with broken bones, a guy who can't comb his hair."

2. John McCain, recalling his unlikely comeback strategy:
"I'm goin' to New Hampshire and by gum I'm gunna tell 'em the truth!"
[ed note: we made up the "by gum" part]

1. Tom Brokaw, on the mainstream media's coverage of New Hampshire:
"We got some explaining to do."

Craig's List Alert: Stage Managers Needed

1. Mitt Romney, stepping to the podium microphone: "I just spent 45 minutes writing some very carefully thought out notes on exactly what I want to say. They're right here. But there's no podium, so I'm not gonna use those." Oopsy. But hey, two silvers! He thought of that all by himself!

2. Barack Obama, re-introducing his "Yes We Can" slogan. Beware the white people. Obama patterned his speech on the testifying, call-and-response patterns of a Baptist sermon. Folks, here's how it's supposed to go: Barack says "Yes We Can," you say "Amen." Instead, an audience raised on NASCAR and high school football falls into default-cheerleader mode and just yells whatever he says back at him, really fast, like a hardcore band, totally disrupting Obama's MLK-like flow. The result: a man thrown off his rhythm by his own audience, like when Jay-Z lets Beanie Sigel get on a beat. Let's see if we can get this straight, South Carolina, mmmkay?

Best/Worst Campaign Music Award: John Edwards

Blue Mass Group reports that Desperate Housewives hubby James Denton was in NH canvassing for Edwards yesterday, using Wilco's "Heavy Metal Drummer" as his theme music. How? Why? Is this some kind of in-joke? Which beautiful-and-stoned Denton co-star likes to screw heavy metal drummers? Whatever the answer, it's an altogether better choice than that fucking John Cougar Mellencamp Ford commercial that Edwards is using for his entrance music. We don't care if the Cougar sings it for you or not. The campaign has mercifully excised the tune from the official Youtube clip -- hopefully realizing that there isn't a soul on earth that wants to hear that song ever again.

Worst Gadget

Well, it's better than . . . whatever you call that thing Anderson Cooper was fucking with in Iowa. But CNN's "Magic Wall" worked about as well as you'd expect a giant obnoxious iPhone screen to work. Which is to say: not so well. (For the record, here's how it's supposed to go down.) Hugenormous video touch screen to zoom in on breaking election returns? $30 million. Watching your correspondents poke a TV screen like it's a broke ATM machine? Priceless.

I’m back in Boston after spending a couple of hours in Manchester, New Hampshire and must say that I’ve never encountered anything like the surge of interest in Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.

Topic B was would McCain beat Romney? Although the men and the women in the street and at the polls seemed to think that the Republican race would be tight, their sense was that McCain would win.

That’s telling because, as David Bernstein has reported in his Talking Politics Blog, Hillsborough County is ground zero for the Romney Campaign. There were more Romney signs in evidence than for any other candidate, Republican or Democrat.

Topic A was Obama.

Talking to Democrats and Independents at the Red Arrow Diner and on the streets downtown the interest -- and excitement -- about Obama was so real that you felt like you could touch it, taste it.

In all my years of writing about politics I’ve never encountered anything like this before. When I was in high school I volunteered for Gene McCarthy. He was greeted as a breath of fresh air when LBJ’s war in Vietnam was sucking the life of national politics. But he never touched the emotional cords that Obama seems to strum.

Howard Dean came a bit closer. But Dean’s support was limited to college students and those with an activist frame of mind. He too was greated as a new breeze and certainly had more emotional appeal than the sometimes chilly and cerebral McCarthy.

Obama’s appeal seems akin to Bobby Kennedy’s. It is charismatic. It transcends the ordinary and cuts across the divides of age, income, and gender.

I mention gender because I was struck by the number of people I spoke with who were voting FOR Obama, not AGAINST Hillary Clinton. In fact, a number of people said they hoped that the press wouldn’t be too hard of Hillary. It seems that however ClintonNew Hampshire voters. does, she won the respect of a sizable number of

Obama, however, seems to have won their heads and their hearts.