Last night Senator Barack Obama attended a Hollywood gala fundraising event with magic and moonbeams and money pouring out from every window. Well thats how most of the news coverage last night saw it. Anyway Dreamworks Studios co-founder, David Geffen helped throw the event and according to the NY Times columnist Maureen Down he had some words for Obama rival, Hillary Clinton.

“Everybody in politics lies, but they [the Clintons] do it with such ease, it’s troubling… It’s not a very big thing to say, ‘I made a mistake’ on the war, and typical of Hillary Clinton that she can’t.”

Geffen, who was a big fundraiser for the Clintons not that long ago, also had some not so nice things to say about former President Bill Clinton.

Well sure enough, Senator Clinton released a statement about the statement:

“While Senator Obama was denouncing slash and burn politics yesterday, his campaign’s finance chair was viciously and personally attacking Senator Clinton and her husband. If Senator Obama is indeed sincere about his repeated claims to change the tone of our politics, he should immediately denounce these remarks, remove Mr. Geffen from his campaign and return his money.”

Then Obama’s campaign responded with:

“We aren’t going to get in the middle of a disagreement between the Clintons and someone who was once one of their biggest supporters. It is ironic that the Clintons had no problem with David Geffen when was raising them $18 million and sleeping at their invitation in the Lincoln bedroom. It is also ironic that Senator Clinton lavished praise on Monday and is fully willing to accept today the support of South Carolina State Sen. Robert Ford, who said if Barack Obama were to win the nomination, he would drag down the rest of the Democratic Party because ’he’s black.’”

My take? Finally some action. I have to imagine the Clinton machine has been looking into every inch of Obama’s history and planning every counter attack for the last few months. They have probably just been sitting back and waiting for the attacks to come at them to let loose. Same with Obama and the rest of the campaigns. It is probably a little too early for the full onslaught of campaign mudslinging, but at least things are starting to heat up and have moved on from “John Edwards combed his hair on television today and Mitt Romney reaffirmed his belief in cow subsidies.”

My other take? I think Hollywoods ability to influence campaigns is going to hit a short lull (Not that I really believe it ever influenced them heavily in the first place). Hollywood will do a GREAT job of building up Senator Obama and frankly Senator Clinton’s war chests. When it comes to influencing voters though or raising the serious cash? One thing you cannot help but observe about the Clintons in the last few years is that they have moved on from Hollywood money. Sure it is great, it helped build Bill’s Foundation, helped get Hillary moving in New York. It wasn’t the only source though and by no means their main source of fundraising.

Bill and Hillary have done what conservatives for years said was impossible. They have moved into big time corporate money. Much from the help of Terry Mcauliffe and others around them. Business did pretty well under the Clintons (and the Republican Congress) and many at the very top of business in California & New York and elsewhere seem to lean to the left but also run organizations that benefit from principals on the right.

Bill Clinton helped bridge that gap during his term. He was a moderate. Hillary Clinton seems to be moving in an even more moderate direction than her husband. Meanwhile those in the entertainment industry are moving further to the left and have become rather preachy about it.

Many people in the country didn’t like having the Michael Moore’s and Ashton Kutcher’s of the world preaching politics to them in the last cycle. During 2006 I rarely if ever saw those individuals out in full force. The Democrats ran a very disciplined campaign that did not rely on Hollywood celebrity, but instead relied on giving voters what they wanted in states like Alabama, Missouri, Ohio etc. They gave them moderate candidates who spoke about issues people cared about. Not highly polished ads or Rock concerts.

At the end of the day I don’t know of anyone who votes who did so because their favorite band endorsed a candidate. I’ve actually observed the opposite. I have met Phish and Dave Matthews fans who were the biggest Republicans around. I also know plenty of people who listen to country music and enjoy James Woods movies who vote Democrat.

To be honest, I am really glad about that fact. It reminds me that people are not always slaves to stereotypes or marketing or the opinions of others. They are just people and they vote, often, because they believe in something.

(Though many of the people I know also show up, flick the tabs based on the persons name, their hairstyle, random selection or party and then pull the lever. So I am not going to pretend like we all just walked out of a West Wing episode either!)