Great Coverage for Comedian's "Great Schlep"
"The Great Schlep," taboo-breaking comedienne Sarah Silverman's novel pro-Obama get-out-the-vote effort targeted at elderly Jews in Florida, has been featured in the Times twice within a week. (The project is sponsored by the Jewish Council for Education and Research.) The latest article, by news reporter Damien Cave, appeared in Tuesday's National Section under the headline "Laugh at a Campaign Pitch? Sure. Visit the Grandparents? Not So Much."
Cave praised Silverman's "sarcastic, oddly warm humor" while reporting that the pro-Obama campaign "probably won over only a few dozen grandparents at most" - but having two Times features surely won't hurt Obama's fight for Florida. 
Silverman was also featured in an Arts story by David Itzkoff on October 7, headlined "Message to Grandma: Vote Obama." Itzkoff gushed:
It's still a big if, but if Barack Obama emerges victorious on Election Day, with the swing state Florida in his win column, a modicum of credit may be due Sarah Silverman.
In recent days Ms. Silverman, 37, the acerbic, anything-for-a-laugh comedian, has once again insinuated herself into e-mail inboxes with an online video called "The Great Schlep" (thegreatschlep.com). In it she urges young Jews to encourage any grandparents who live in Florida to vote for Mr. Obama and to withhold visits to their bubbes (grandmas) and zaides (grandpas) if they don't comply.
Itzkoff manages to describe the video without mentioning the vulgar parts. As Tim Graham points out at NewsBusters, CBS News (and the Times) both leave out the vulgar parts of "The Great Schlep" video, as noted by Graham, including:
Silverman saying "vote for McCain, to me you're a s-t stain," Gore was "f--ed by Florida" in 2000, and Obama is "probably our last hope of ending our country's reputation as the a-holes of the universe."
