John McCain's presidential campaign included images of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton in a television attack ad against opponent Barack Obama. Now, one-half of that duo strikes back and the result is posted on Funny or Die.

At first, I was thinking that it was nice to see Paris Hilton able to take the piss out of herself like this. Then I realized that she was probably serious. I also realized that since was on this site, someone else wrote the sketch for her and she just had to speak the words. Her reference to John McCain as "the wrinkly white-haired guy" was funny, but not nearly as funny as her attempt at intellectual debate toward the end.

Video is after the jump.

He's out! Stephen Colbert is not going to be America's next president, or indeed, even the next presidential candidate.The South Carolina Democratic Executive Council voted to keep Stephen Colbert's name off the primary ballot, which pretty effectively ends his presidential campaign. Nevertheless, Colbert would not be Colbert without making a showy public withdrawal.

Colbert has been running for president in South Carolina, and chronicling his campaign adventures on The Colbert Report. Despite Colbert's position as a mock Republican, he campaigned as a Democrat, probably -- as The Huffington Post notes -- because it was less expensive to file as a liberal.

Really, how long did anyone expect this to go on?

Earlier on Thursday, the South Carolina Democratic Party decided to keep Stephen Colbert's name off the ballot, saying that he didn't meet the national standard of viability and didn't seem to be campaigning to win. Plus, the state party would have had to pay $20,000 to the state election commission to have Colbert's name on the ballot. $20,000 is an awful lot for a drawn-out joke.

Well here's a little wrinkle to Stephen Colbert's faux run for President: could he be breaking election laws?

That's what they're talking about over at Politico.com. Kenneth Vogel explains that even though it's a joke, he could be violating election laws if Comedy Central keeps spending money on the campaign and promoting it on the network. And Marc Elias, a Washington D.C. attorney says that just because it's a joke doesn't mean you get to run by a different set of rules.

MSNBC has just announced that they will air the first debate of the 2008 Presidential campaign. The network will have the first Democratic party debate at South Carolina State University on April 26. A few weeks later, on May 15, FOX News will air the first Republican party debate from South Carolina.

Um...wait a second. The election isn't until November of 2008 but the debates are already starting this April? More than a year and a half before the election? Has this always been done? I usually pay close attention to these things but I can't remember them starting this early before.

Then again, all the supermarkets and drugstores had Christmas candy on the same shelves as Halloween candy a few months ago, so I guess everything starts early these days.

[via TV Newser]

Regular readers of my West Wing reviews know that I haven't been a fan of the show the past two years. Oh, it has had a certain quality, but it's nowhere near the level that we saw in the first four seasons, when Aaron Sorkin was in charge. But I gotta tell ya: if the remaining episodes continue the quality we've seen this season, then at the end of the year I'm not only going to name this show Comeback of the Year, it's going on my Top 10 list.

There was a lot of confusion last week when The West Wing's John Spencer passed away. Every single newspaper, magazine, and web site (including this one, but in our defense we missed the opening scene and were just repeating the news sites) reported that the character of Leo had appeared in a three years later flash forward in the first scene of the season opener. And that would pose a problem, since Spencer passed away and couldn't have been in a scene three years in the future.

But NBC is repeating the episode right now and it's official: Leo was not in the scene. So some of the speculation we talked about last week is still valid.