According to Slate, Barack Obama took only five-and-a-half hours to react to a Hillary Clinton ad this week.

11: 15 a.m.: Clinton campaign e-mails: “NEW AD: Clinton Campaign Unveils New Ad Asking Voters, ‘Who Do You Think Has What it Takes?’ ”

4:49 p.m.: Obama campaign e-mails: “AD RESPONSE TO CLINTON FEAR AD”

His is called: ‘He Has What It Takes’. You can watch them below.

“I suspect the guillotine is hanging over my head.”

Samantha Power’s interview on RTÉ Radio 1’s Today with Pat Kenny would have been interesting anyway, but given that it was perhaps her last public comments before being axed from the Obama camp for calling Hillary Clinton a “monster”, it has an added pathos now (although that depends on your political viewpoint).

You can listen to that interview here. You’ll find her comments on the “monster” controversy from 52:30 minutes on.

As a journalist it raises the important question of what is off the record and what is not; and is it unfair to quote her as saying that Clinton “is a monster, too - that is off the record - she is stooping to anything”?

If journalists printed everything that they were told was off the record, newspapers would be far more exciting places. But they don’t, often to maintain relationships with sources, out of respect for interviewees, and because of the unwritten code introduced by the mere mention of teh words “this is off the record”. They are supposed to act as invisibility dust, hiding the remarks from the record. But not this time.

3hrs 24mins: time Hillary Clinton spends each day widening her eyes and pointing at people in the crowd.

Some observations from the US primaries:

- Cathal McCoille must have wanted to slap down the American chap this morning who told him on Morning Ireland that he knew a lot for an Irish man. “Hey, aren’t you a clever little leprechaun. Do a jig.” This guy had already arrived on the show by saying hello to the “emerald isle”.

- The New York Times cuts to the chase on its website and just gives its readers the results first.

- Of the many US campaign ads, this has the oddest catchline. It’s like something off a low-calorie chocolate bar (”Choconums: surprisingly moist”). Although, it would be fun to see an ad of this type on Irish television. “Willie O’Dea: surprisingly bitey.” “Enda Kenny: surprisingly evil.” etc.

The Americans here are obsessed about who we’re not paying attention to over there.

The Irish are obsessed with which of the candidates is a ninth cousin of someone over here.

And now here’s Tom McEnery (”a former mayor of San Jose … he spends part of each year in Ballybunion”) writing in the San Jose Mercury News about the bellweather town of Ballybunion.

When you want a real idea of who will be the next president, do not turn to the pundits and the talking heads of the chattering, bodiless, odoriferous order that pontificates for each and every network and cable channel - look to Ballybunion. Here in a place known for golf, seaweed baths and prognostications, you will find the truth. Here the denizens decry the hoopla of polls and likely voter profiles, and simply prefer the age-old method of trial by rhetoric, argument and ancestry - oh, yes, ancestry. Even now in Costello’s Public House, the verdict has been rendered, and it’s for the kinsman. As they say, “Surely, he’s Irish, near Killarney, ye know, and ye’ve only to look at Barack’s face and the way he speaks: Homeric!” This is a vetting and examination that each American president and aspiring president has to endure. The verdict is in… (more…)

This video from Ron Paul Supporters in Ireland popped up on YouTube this week. If you don’t know who Ron Paul is, this attempts to point out why. It complains that the US presidential candidate has got little coverage here; that you would assume there were only two candidates in the race.

It has a point, although this video isn’t interested in examining the context. This isn’t the Irish election, in which the media follows rules about bias. Instead, the Irish media concentrates on the stories that interest them and - they presume - the public. Still, even in its blunt way, it raises an interesting issue.

Some links:

73man highlights one of RTÉ’s more ridiculous online polls.

66 Simpsons scenes alongside the movies that influenced them. (via BoingBoing)

TV3 has been given some stick for its coverage of the rugby. New Zealand’s TV3 has been getting abuse too. Maybe they could form a support group.

A supreme-court judge in the Phillipines announced that he chats with three elves only he can see. He’s become a TV favourite because of it. The Supreme Court’s medical clinic says he’s suffering from a form of psychosis. The judge says he’s not. You decide.

Fresh from turning back Venezuala’s clocks by half an hour, Hugo Chavez’s TV show lasted a record eight hours this weekened.

The Ryanair of bus tours: Megabus

New York Times gives Americans the impression that all one-off housing in Ireland can be an architectural masterpiece.

Best bit about Friday’s match? The fan getting stuck in the bog.

…is the Burning Man in the Nevada desert. (What else could it be?)

No “posh washes”. No umbrella stalls. No sponsored stages. No clothes.

Instead, there is a staggering level of imagination, a need for self-sufficiency (in water and food), and a “no spectators, only participants” ethic which encourages some incredible art. I was there in 1999, and it was the most mind-altering/expanding/boggling/melting festival I’ve been at. After 21 years, it faces annual accusations that it’s sold out, but this seems to be only from the perspective of the more rarified levels of Californian hippidom.

Eight days long, it culminates in the burning of a 40ft sculpture of “the Man” (you may spot the subtle symbolism in that).

Except that an “attention whore” arsonist has set it on fire four days early. Can’t imagine what he’d do if he saw Antony Gormley’s sculpture.

The original prop lightsaber from Star Wars is to be launched into space to mark the 30th anniversary of the “greatest movie event of a generation to have been subsequently sullied by the worst movie event of a generation”. (more…)

“Debate” on The Last Word in which David Quinn asks Psychics Live owner Tom Higgins for verifiable proof of astrology. Thrust of the row: “Prove astrology,” says Quinn. “No you prove religion,” says Higgins. “No you prove astrology,” retorts Quinn. “No, you prove religion.” Occassional sensible person texts in to point out that neither is on what you could call solid ground.
Link
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As humanity’s actions lead to the extinction of Yangtze dolphin, we can be next to die out if we follow the lead of the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement.

Sean Hughes tells the Telegraph that his Madeleine McCann joke was legitimate (more…)

Watching RTE’s promo for Miriam O’Callaghan’s chat show, I wonder why they don’t plug Prime Time by having men talk about her as a “thinking man’s crumpet” or as someone who has “lots of kids”. They’d be able to plug Mark Little as “the thinking woman’s Man from Del Monte”. Although, as inane RTE promos go, nothing will ever again match the Ryan Tubridy as Agent Smith masterwork - unless it’s Gerry Ryan as John Rambo.

You want to see a real promo: check out this outrageously over-the-top one for an American channel’s weatherman. Gary England. Hero.

On last night’s Nine News, David Davin Power was speaking live to the studio on how the coalition talks were going - but had his back to the action suddenly unfolding behind him…

Belatedly, following last week’s Big Brother racism row, it’s an opportune moment to point out this bit of Daily Show genius. Send one white guy and one black guy out on the streets to ask about attitudes to the “n-word”. But only one of them can actually say it. Best line: “Do you understand how rap works, councillor?”