Barack Obama needs to convince voters that he understands them and leave the dirty work to his surrogates, says Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, who's also chairman of the DCCC.

Before Obama accepted the Democratic nomination in Denver last night, I asked Emanuel, a famously bulldoggish veteran of the Clinton White House, if the Democrats were being sufficiently aggressive in going after John McCain.

“The best line was Hillary’s line about the Twin Cities, you know, frick and frack [McCain and Bush] over there—you can’t tell them apart,” said Emanuel, who was surrounded by aides on the floor of the Invesco field.  read more »

DENVER—Here's David Paterson and City Councilman Hiram Monserrate in the lobby of the Sheraton last night after the Obama speech, where Monserrate seemed happy to get to the side of the man who made him the Democratic nominee (and favorite) for a State Senate seat.

Back in June, Paterson named the incumbent Monserrate was challenging, State Senator John Sabini, as head of the state's Racing and Wagering board, ending their primary fight, which looked like it was going to be a tough race for Sabini.

Right before this picture, Paterson was horsing around and insisted on switching roles. He put his chief of staff, Charles O'Byrne, in the shot, as the blind governor tried to take the picture.

It didn't seem to work out. Paterson put the viewfinder up by his eye, but fell into hysterics multiple times before he handed the camera off to someone else.

DENVER—Former Hillary Clinton bundler Robert Zimmerman, one of Al Gore's biggest supporters, said last night on the floor of the Invesco Center that watching the former vice president "brings back many wonderful memories."

"I remember the first global warming lecture, reading the draft of his anti-war speech," Zimmerman said, as Gore delivered the line, "I know something about close elections."

"I think of the good times,"Zimmerman said.

It's not enough that Brett Ratner, Hollywood's least admired superstar director, has already made commercials for Activision's Guitar Hero videogame featuring those two guys from American Idol whose names you already forgot pretending to be Tom Cruise in Risky Business. Now, according to MTV's Multiplayer blog, Mr. Ratner wants to direct a movie based on the game. (This comes via New York's Vulture blog.)

Here's what the humble Rush Hour director and Entourage self-satirizer told MTV's Stephen Totilo:

I love 'Guitar Hero' and I think it’s a part of pop culture. I would love to do a 'Guitar Hero' movie, if Activision would ever let me.  read more »

The first of our questions for the day has been answered, as Jelena Jankovic not only stayed standing, but won in straight sets, 7-5, 7-5, over Jie Zheng. It wasn't easy, though, and those two sets took over two hours. Jankovic will play her first seeded player in the Round of 16; her opponent will be either Victoria Azarenka (14) or Caroline Wozniacki (21), who play later today.

For Barack Obama's acceptance speech in Denver last night, Michelle Obama wore a dress by Thakoon Panichgul. [WWD]

Karl Lagerfeld will help out with two Coco Chanel films currently in the works. He will work with the costumer for Chanel et Stravinsky and supervise the re-creation of costumes for Coco Avant Chanel, starring Audrey Tautou. [Fashionologie]

Burberry is continuing its U.S. expansion by opening its first U.S. children's store on November 7 at The Westchester mall in White Plains. [Vogue UK]  read more »

DENVER—"There's my girl!" Chevy Chase bellowed as Madeline Albright walked into the backroom of the Vanity Fair-Google party on Thursday, August 28. The towering comedian, who was clad in a blazer, T-shirt and jeans, bent down to embrace his old friend. They discussed plans to get together—Mr. Chase promising an e-mail from "his people"—mugged for the cameras, and agreed that Barack Obama had nailed his speech. "If we're seen together, you're in trouble," joked the funnyman.

After a hearty laugh, conversation returned to the speech. Ms. Albright said that while the presidential candidate is incredibly charming in person, she was also pleased with the "diplomacy" of the speech.  read more »

Perhaps Anna Wintour has been so busy organizing fund-raisers that she has sort of dropped the ball on maintaining the image of the fashion editor whose closet is supposed to be the size of France and who would never disappoint her trembling fans by wearing the same dress twice. (At least not in the same country--same rules as cheating on your wife apply.)

But the woman who is supposed to be fashion perfection has worn the same turquoise Oscar de la Renta Resort '09 dress three times since May! And in public! Where paparazzi were lurking!

She debuted it at an after-party for the premiere of Sex and the City in May, and has since worn the belted dress, which falls a touch below the knee, to Tommy Hilfiger's engagement party in June with nude-colored heels.  read more »

The Obama campaign is not giving an inch when it comes to John McCain choosing Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. In a statement released a few minutes ago, there was no warm language about the first female Republican vice presidential nominee, just a straightforward hit. From Obama spokesman Bill Burton:

"Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency. Governor Palin shares John McCain's commitment to overturning Roe v. Wade, the agenda of Big Oil and continuing George Bush's failed economic policies -- that's not the change we need, it's just more of the same.  read more »

The Spy’s Bedside Book
Edited by Graham Greene and Hugh Greene
Bantam, 252 pages, $12

While Graham Greene and his brother Hugh were compiling The Spy’s Bedside Book, a medley of vignettes of spycraft drawn from fiction, memoirs and historical documents first published in 1957 and now reissued just in time, it seems, for the return of the Cold War, they stumbled upon the deep explanation for why tales of espionage cast so strong a spell over their readers: "I wonder how many would be able to detect truth from fiction in this anthology," Graham writes in the introduction, "if the editors had not printed the names of the contributors.  read more »