Barack Obama has been endorsed by the creator of the famous “Wall of Sound” production method, i.e. the accused murderer Phil Spector. Spector wore a “Barack Obama Rocks” badge in an appearance at a hearing in preparation for his upcoming trial in the shooting death of an actress named Lana Clarkson. (This is the second attempt to try Spector in this case; the first ended in a mistrial.) The story is reported today in an LA Times blog.

I like Phil Spector. Neither this endorsement nor any possible future conviction for murder will make me throw away those recordings of the Ronettes and the Crystals and so on. Geniuses have their flaws. You’ve got to take the crunchy with the smooth. In Phil’s case, he’s never lacked for the crunchy elements.

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And speaking of great men and their flaws, there was a story yesterday on Barack Obama’s address to UNITY ‘08, a convention of four minority journalism associations. There are no doubt a number of things worthy of comment in terms of what Obama said, but look at this part of the report on his appearance:

Obama, who appeared tired in his first major appearance since returning Saturday from a 10-day trip abroad, met with a receptive audience at the Chicago convention. Some journalists had waited three hours for the 40-minute appearance.

[...]

Obama, who acknowledged that he needed a nap, stood up to say farewell to the audience of journalists, many of whom gave him another standing ovation.

Let’s get this straight. We’re told that Obama returned on Saturday from his overseas trip. The address was on Monday. He “appeared tired” and “acknowledged that he needed a nap.” Just imagine for a minute that this story had been written about John McCain. We would never hear the end of the jokes about how the 72 year-old senator needs his naps. Actually, they wouldn’t be jokes. I think there are those who would use such an occurrence to seriously question the Republican candidate’s vitality, health and strength. No doubt at some point during this campaign such an issue will be raised, perhaps prompted by some gaffe or incident of some kind. All I’m doing here is pointing out the double-standard in advance.

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