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It wasn’t so bad. George Clooney’s speech defending Hollywood’s big ole heart was nice, and Philip Seymour Hoffman’s tribute to his mom was touching. Jon Stewart was pretty good, and Dolly Parton is a genuine force of nature. On the other hand, Reese Witherspoon offered a sort of windy rehash of her previous acceptance speeches (the other shows are all televised too, little lady), and Ang Lee delivered the “wish I knew how to quit you” line to the sound of crickets. And the last few minutes were a big bummer because we really, really agree with Andrew O’Hehir about “Crash.” Really and truly we do.

The highlight of the show came in the first five minutes; the first of many highlight reels, it was the only one we wanted to watch again. And again and again.

Open Salon interview.

A struggling Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Penn., went nuclear Wednesday, with an ad that tries to ally challenger Bob Casey with North Korea and China. Ah, the acrid smell of desperation in the weeks before a congressional election! Be prepared for even more of these terror-filled spots in these glorious final days of Campaign 2006, all of which carry a little DNA from the mother of all scare ads: The 1964 Lyndon Johnson “Daisy Girl” ad against Barry Goldwater (bottom ad, below).

From Michael Scherer’s piece today: “The GOP seems to believe that Ford’s appeal to its most reliable voters is working. In recent days, the Republican National Committee has attempted to reverse the troubling polls in Tennessee with a television ad that both attacks Ford’s religious credentials and invokes that old standby of American politics, racial fear.”

This National Republican Senatorial Committee ad against Harold Ford sports an early mention of a Playboy connection that the party hopes will rile Christians against Ford.

Salon’s piece on Rep. Harold Ford Jr.’s senate campaign spotlights his appeal to churchgoers, as in the TV spot below.