Obama’s fans organize hundreds of house parties across the country on Sunday. Here’s one:

It’s interesting to note that Obama supporters who disagreed with his stand on telecom immunity used the campaign’s own tools — the same ones used to put together these house parties — to bring together a pressure group on the issue. Ari Melber at The Nation has the story and I have a few thoughts on the implications.

So here’s a “behind-the-scenes look” at (read: commercial for) an Obama poster, ending with a link to the Obama store, where it’s for sale at $70. Title of the video: Artists for Obama.

Next: T-shirt sweat shops for Obama?

Barack Obama speaks to the Conference of Mayors.

Sound bite: “When disaster strikes…. it’s City Hall we lean on… The government that people count on most is the one that’s closest to the people.”

He sounds positively Republican.

YouTube’s CitizenTube and the National Journal held an event in Washington with loads of luminaries from the campaign and internet worlds: videos at the CitizenTube blog and interviews here.

It’s way too early to prognosticate the election based on polls, but what’s a pollster to do in the meantime? Gallup finds a seven point lead for Obama among independents. They also find lower loyalty in each party (78 percent of Democrats say now they’ll vote for Obama). Thus, Gallup says, more party people may move and act like independence.

We are only now — a bit late — beginning to face up to sexism as a factor in the Democratic race and as an ongoing problem in America.

Katie Couric spoke out:

Sound bite: “It isn’t just Hillary Clinton who needs to learn a lesson from this primary season, it’s all the people who crossed the line and all the women and men who let them get away with it.”

The New York Times today delivers the stock on-the-one-hand, on-the-other-hand, try-to-say-nothing roundup that comes to no conclusion but does, at least, compile a few of the sins:

Cable television has come under the most criticism. Chris Matthews, a host on MSNBC, called Mrs. Clinton a “she-devil” and said she had gotten as far as she had only because her husband had “messed around.”

Mike Barnicle, a panelist on MSNBC, said that Mrs. Clinton was “looking like everyone’s first wife standing outside a probate court.” Tucker Carlson, also on MSNBC, said, “When she comes on television, I involuntarily cross my legs.”

The establishment news media were faulted too. The New York Times wrote about Mrs. Clinton’s “cackle” and The Washington Post wrote about her cleavage.

Ken Rudin, an editor at National Public Radio, appeared on CNN, where he equated Mrs. Clinton with the actress Glenn Close in “Fatal Attraction.” “She’s going to keep coming back, and they’re not going to stop her,” Mr. Rudin said. He later apologized.

Howard Dean comes out to decry the sexism. Why didn’t he do this during the campaign?

Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic Party, who says he was slow to pick up on charges of sexism because he is not a regular viewer of cable television, is taking up the cause after hearing an outcry from what he described as a cross-section of women, from individual voters to powerful politicians and chief executives.

“The media took a very sexist approach to Senator Clinton’s campaign,” Mr. Dean said in a recent interview.

“It’s pretty appalling,” he said, adding that the issue resonates because Mrs. Clinton “got treated the way a lot of women got treated their whole lives.”

Mr. Dean and others are now calling for a “national discussion” of sexism.

Howard Dean doesn’t watch Chris Matthews? Yeah, sure.

: And here’s The Times’ Nick Kristof writing the speech on sexism he wishes Obama would now deliver.

Here’s Hilary Clinton’s rousing speech handing the baton over to Barack.