Can you imagine being the poor slob who was responsible for London’s portion of the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics?

Beijing: We have 15,000 acrobats and $1 billion worth of fireworks. You?

London: We have a bus that turns into a hedge.

“I’ve gotta love Phelps. He’s a Baltimore guy.”

At random times in casual conversation, I’ve actually started telling people that I’m from Maryland! Eight gold medals… Michael Phelps has way more cachet than the Ravens ever did.

I watched yesterday’s presidential candidate forum with interest. Obama and McCain took questions from the Rev. Rick Warren about their beliefs. Here’s what I heard:

• Obama: Christ’s love compels us to help those less fortunate.
• McCain: With God’s help, we must defeat evil.

Fascinating! We have a New Testament candidate and an Old Testament candidate!

Reading between the lines, Obama’s message is that he’ll use our government to build things and help the poor and the sick. McCain’s message is that we’ve got to keep killing those bastards who attacked us seven years ago!

That’s my takeaway. I have a hunch most swing voters won’t hear those messages. They’ll hear: Obama is pro-choice, Obama will raise taxes, better vote for the other guy. Never mind that fighting a war not only destroys human life, it inevitably means higher taxes.

Finally, I’ve noticed that Rick Warren seems like a genuinely good man who is in love with himself. He’s ripe for a John-Edwardsian scandal!

This subject should be getting more attention (said the guy who wrote the story, humbly):

Bill Would End Ban on Photos of Returning Military Dead

Can you imagine? You’ve trained most of your life to become an Olympic swimmer. Finally you’ve made it! You’re in Beijing and you’re swimming at your absolute best! Friends and family cheer you on!

And against whom are you competing? Michael Phelps! So not fair!!

From my work blog: Obama Photographer Self-Destructs

Recently, an e-mail accused Barack Obama of refusing to meet with the troops in Afghanistan. It was so base a lie that the writer of the e-mail, when contacted by the Army Times, immediately disavowed it. But I bet people are still forwarding it and believing it. It’s becoming clear that some Americans – especially those uninformed, disinterested losers known as “swing voters” – will believe even the flimsiest lies about Barack Obama.

This is a theme this election that I can’t stop thinking about. Why are people so willing to be misled? It’s not that people don’t have access to true facts about the candidates. It’s not that they can’t figure it out. It’s that they choose to ignore facts, preferring instead the safe ignorance of their own prejudices.

Related: Check out the ever-growing Snopes page on Barack Obama, and Obama’s site Fight the Smears.

Update: The Washington Post has a detail-rich story about how the McCain campaign amplified and repeated a lie about Obama refusing to meet troops.

I let my subscription to the New Yorker run out, so I missed getting a paper copy of this week’s Barack and Michelle Obama cover. No matter, I saw it anyway (just like everybody who watches cable TV or reads blogs) before the magazine was even released. Why are we still printing things on paper?

The cover led to a New York Times story about how it’s hard to write jokes about Barack Obama.

“Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay” somehow made fun of a shameful military prison, so if there’s humor in that, I’m sure there’s humor in the Obama campaign somewhere. Especially if you’re not trying too hard. I’m sure Leno and Letterman are pulling it off. Ditto with JibJab.

I have to be honest, I never found JibJab vidoes especially funny, and they seem to play things awfully safe for satire. But it is what it is. The new one about the campaign is pretty cute, and the animation has been stepped up a notch. But can they make fun of Obama? Yeah. The Disneyesque Obama scene seems like it nails it: Obama as Uncle Walt in the Magic Kingdom.

Actually, wait, give me a minute to think about that concept to make sure there’s nothing racist about it.

I did a quick-reaction story yesterday for PDNOnline about Iran’s use of photoshop to create a propaganda photo: Newspapers Plan Corrections Over Iran Missile Photo