Campaign roundup

The good news for Barack Obama: When he appeared on The View yesterday, Barbara Walters told him he was "sexy looking." The bad news: As Slate V demonstrates, Obama Girl actually makes people - especially women - like Obama less.

Although Obama's bounced back in the polls, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright continues to haunt him. In response to a query from The View's slightly dim Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Obama gently asked how she would feel if someone compiled a video of the five stupidest things she had ever said. Bloggers quickly obliged.

John McCain outlined his economic views and his plan to solve the housing crisis. Hillary Clinton's response still harps on that 3 a.m. phone ad: "It seems like if the phone were ringing, [McCain] would just let it ring and ring and ring." Disappointingly, says The Washington Post, presidents never really answer 3 a.m. phone calls at all.

And the Clinton campaign goes on for as long as that phone call. Slate's Hillary Deathwatch sounds a funereal note: "Hillary Clinton is as good as dead." Obama says the Democratic race is like a good movie that has gone on too long and Clinton later snaps, "I like long movies." Patrick Leahy doesn't. At this point, says Chris Orr, Clinton has joined the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.

McCain also gave a foreign policy speech that promised a more collaborative approach. Think Progress scooped a big story - McCain's speech plagiarizes an admiral! - only to discover that the admiral plagiarized McCain.

GQ and The Washington Post profiled Meghan McCain, John McCain's hipster daughter. She blogs, agrees that Obama is sexy, aspires to fashion design, and totes a large, offensively nicknamed suitcase. Michelle Cottle says an adoring press gives Meghan a pass on the suitcase.