"For McCain, being cool meant being a rogue, not a policy wonk; but Obama manages to be a cool College Bowl type...."

And it must irk McCain that the cooler cool these days is the nerd cool, says Maureen Dowd. Her column is all about the envy McCain must feel for Obama, but I wanted to focus on the transformation of cool.

Obama is making schoolwork, studying, and showing your braininess cool. That's good for the kids, people.

I love the new Paris Hilton ad — discussed in the previous post — because she — the emblematic airhead — now sees it in her interest to act really smart. She probably is reasonably smart: She's built a very successful career while making it look effortless. It was cool to (seem to) be a big dummy. And she's picked up the new trend: Being openly intelligent.

What a great trend!