Political jokes are in reruns because of the writers strike

With the late-night talk shows forced into hiatus by the Writers Guild of America strike, political candidates have been spared fresh swipes (though the old ones replay) from late-night comedians -- and that means a break for front-runner Sen. Hillary Clinton, who has been the top target of their humor.

Between Jan. 1 and Oct. 10, the senator from New York was the butt of 186 jokes cracked by NBC’s Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien, CBS’ David Letterman and Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, according to a study of the hosts’ monologues by the Center for Media and Public Affairs. The rest of the Democratic contenders were joked about a combined total of 197 times, with Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois drawing 56 cracks, the second-largest number.

Most of the jokes about Clinton centered on her gender and portrayed her as cold and . . . unattractive, including 29 swipes about her taste in clothes and 21 cracks about her marital difficulties, according to the Washington, D.C.-based media watchdog group. Examples:

“Hillary is dressing sexier and sexier. Yesterday she was seen shopping at Victoria’s Pantsuit.” -- Letterman

“Sen. Clinton said that as president she would bring the troops home. The troops? She can’t even get Bill to come home.” -- Leno

Altogether, the Democrats drew 383 jokes by the late-night hosts, compared with 312 about the Republicans. In the GOP field, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani triggered the most swipes, with 72, while former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was made fun of 68 times.

Only Clinton and Giuliani managed to crack the list of the top 10 most frequently mocked public figures this year.

In first place: George W. Bush, who drew 826 jokes. He was followed by Paris Hilton with 258 and Vice President Dick Cheney with 197.

Third-grader helps pros

Adults tend to think of politics as, well, an adult game despite some of its participants’ antics. Every once in a while we need a reminder that there’s an entire demographic under the voting age of 18 that is watching this baffling election process.

XM Satellite Radio’s POTUS 08 Channel 130, the ultimate fix for political junkies, got that reminder the other day. Producer Joanna Welch was opening the mail and came upon a unique letter that had some spelling errors but made a valid point.

It was from 8-year-old Sophia McCrimmen, an avid politics fan who lives in Mechanicsville, Va. “I love lisning to your shows!” she wrote. “I love politics so much! I just have one problem, you are underestimating the number of days until the election! You are forgeting that 2008 is a leap year!...Plese add one day too your total to acount for leap day. Keep up the good work.

“P.S. Can you mabie read this on the radio? That would be super cool!!!!

“P.P.S. If you have time. I don’t want to mess you up.”

You can imagine how quickly Welch checked the calendar. Sophia was right. It didn’t take long to get Sophia on the phone. Sophia favors Barack Obama because of his Iraq war stance and also likes SpongeBob SquarePants. She thinks people ought to be able to vote at any age if they are well-informed about politics.

Given that so many so-called American adults don’t bother to vote, she’s got a point. So make a note of the name Sophia McCrimmen. And watch for it on a ballot in, oh, say, about 30 years.

A Ron Paul office near you?

Ron Paul opened a campaign office the other afternoon in Charleston, S.C. -- his third in a state that traditionally has been crucial to deciding Republican nominees.

According to Brian Gentry, Paul’s South Carolina field coordinator, more than 150 people attended the event, where the candidate spoke for about 15 minutes, then answered questions for another 20.

In Iowa, meanwhile, campaign aide John Zambenini reports that a couple of satellite operations soon will open, supplementing the work at the main headquarters in Des Moines.

In New Hampshire, the one office is in Concord. But state campaign coordinator Jared Chicoine says it’s spacious -- 2,400 square feet -- and now includes telephone banks.

The point? Inexorably, Paul is establishing the type of infrastructure that not so many months ago would have been hard to imagine for such a renegade politician.

Dennis not feeling the love

One of the perennial problems of being a perennial presidential campaigner with absolutely no chance of winning is that everyone -- even your own party’s opponents -- perennially ignore you.

How to get around this?

You could propose impeaching the vice president or president. It’s worth a day’s free publicity. The latest tactic Dennis Kucinich has come up with is: complain about being ignored in a competitor’s ad.

A new print and video ad by Sen. Joe Biden involves more than a dozen quick film clips from candidate debates showing his Democratic opponents saying such things as, “I agree with Joe,” “Joe is absolutely right” and “Amen to Joe Biden.” The cumulative effect is hilarious.

But Rep. Kucinich wasn’t laughing. It seems he was left out of the collection of film clips. In a news release, Kucinich complained about being “the only candidate deliberately excluded from the ad blitz.”

Edwards uses L-word

Most politicians begin as lawyers -- or, at the least, obtain a law degree before trolling for votes. However, few politicians spotlight their legal background. John Edwards is an exception.

Speaking at a recent town hall meeting in Bow, N.H., the Associated Press reported, the Democratic presidential contender called attention to the many years he spent as a trial lawyer, often representing plaintiffs suing manufacturers.

“What I did was: I gave them hope,” he told his listeners. “And then I walked into that courtroom and I gave the company hell because they deserved it. That’s the kind of fight we need.”

Times staff writer Matea Gold contributed to this report.

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Excerpted from The Times’ political blog, Top of the Ticket, at www.latimes.com/ topoftheticket.