McCain Blogettes

Meghan McCain: "No one knows what war is like other than my family. Period."

Can we please start talking about Biden's son going to Iraq? Does he understand war? Do the hundreds of thousands of soldiers in Iraq understand war? Or maybe only the ones who support her family, because every single soldier and veteran votes Republican, right?

What I'm reading today:

• The American Prospect looks at the good and the bad behind Obama's takeover of the DNC.
• A companion piece looks at the 15 most important advisors behind the Obama operation.
• Chris Bowers examines the demographic trends behind Obama's coalition and declares an end to the era of Values Voters and "Bubba Dominance."
• WireTap profiles Tony Peyton, the youngest member of the Pennsylvania House, and how the Center for Progressive Leadership helped shape him into a winning candidate.
• John McCain is trying to steal credit for the new GI Bill, which he actively opposed and obstructed.
• Bondelli explains how you can build your own Sprout Widget.
• The Voto Latino blog pointed me to this GQ profile of Meghan McCain from back in March. It's so vacuous at times that can't decide if it is a terrible profile or sheer genius on the part on the part of the McCain campaign. The girl did go to Columbia. What do you think?
• If, like me, you've been mesmerized by HBO's Generation Kill, you should check out the original Rolling Stone article by Evan Wright.
• Youth are a prime target in the Indiana Governor's race.
• Gawker thinks that MSNBC is trending Democratic and will continue to do so as it rakes in younger viewers.
• The Virginia Pilot notes that 2/3 of the 200,000 newly registered voters in the state are under the age of 35. The paper declares voter registration the new youth movement. I couldn't agree more.

And so it begins. Not even a week after I posted about John McCain's strengths among young voters and the potential of his daughter to be a media-darling/spokesperson, the AP up and publishes a profile of the McCain Blogettes and the youth vote, full of star-struck observations such as this gem:

Meghan decided to blog about the campaign, with help from a couple of friends, after graduating last year from Columbia University.

Her Web site mixes behind-the-scenes photos and videos from the campaign trail with iPod music playlists, designer fashion, even makeup tips.

It can be addictive, says Julie Barko Germany, director of the Institute for Politics and the Internet at George Washington University.

"It feels almost like picking up a copy of Us Weekly — real stars, they're just like us!" Germany said.

Mmmmm......substantive content about the youth vote from our media experts (/snark). I expect many more such articles in the months to come.

Typically, the most interesting part of the article was this bit, buried in the 22nd paragraph:

Unlike the Romney blog, "McCain Blogette" is independent from the campaign. So independent, the campaign said it could not answer who pays for Meghan and her two friends to travel on campaign planes and buses. A spokeswoman for Meghan did not respond to inquiries.

What do you suppose that means?