LOOSE CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN

Posted at 8:41 p.m. ET

In an act of consummate bad timing, Barack Obama raced to Hollywood yesterday to float in a sea of oversized checkbooks and egos - this while sounding his "common man" theme as Wall Street came apart.  The Hollywood crowd doesn't have enough class to know how absurd this looks.  You'd think someone in Barack's campaign might have had some misgivings:

Barack Obama partied with Hollywood celebrities Tuesday night and with the help of Oscar-winning singer and actress Barbra Streisand raised an eye-popping $9 million for his presidential campaign and the Democratic Party.

The night was split into two glitzy events, a reception and dinner costing $28,500 each at the Greystone Mansion, followed by entertainment by Streisand at the nearby Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel. About 250-300 people were expected at the dinner and about 800 at the entertainment, which cost $2,500 a ticket.

Or, as it's called in Tinseltown, a tip.

This is vulgar in the extreme.  Add to that some curious comments by The One.

He said later that people had encouraged him to be tougher and had questioned why he was so calm in a close race against Republican John McCain.

''I'm skinny but I'm tough,'' he said. ''I'm from Chicago and we don't play. Just keep steady.''

I wasn't aware he was from Chicago.  I thought he was from Hawaii, or Kansas, or somewhere by way of Indonesia.  Some other place.  Settled in Chicago.

''The reason I'm calm ... is I've got confidence in the American people,'' he said. ''I really think they want to see us do better.''

You know, when a man keeps repeated how calm, but tough he is, I begin to wonder.  Why does he have to say it?  Is he trying to reassure us that he has the psychological stability to be president?  I'm not reassured, especially as he can't seem to handle press questions or pressure on the campaign trail.

He said the economic turmoil in recent days had been sobering for America. ''It's reminded people that this is not a game. This is not a reality show, no offense to any of you,'' Obama said to laughter. ''This is not a sitcom.''

We'll be the judge of that.  Looked pretty comical to me.

September 17, 2008.