That Wacky Campaign

Presidential campaigns aer always great spectator sports, but this one seemed especially rich with gaffes, gotcha moments and goofy distractions. A Notebook look back at the highlights and lowlights.

LEAST CONVINCING SPORTS FAN Kerry hails Red Sox star Manny Ramirez as "Manny Ortez," calls Green Bay Packers' home "Lambert Field." (It's Lambeau)

WORST SPECIAL EFFECT The Bush campaign withdraws a TV ad after using a computer program to multiply the soldiers in the crowd at a Bush rally

LEAST CLOSETED LESBIAN Mary Cheney is outed by herself, her parents and two Democratic candidates--and some people are still shocked

MOST SHAMELESS ATTACK AD Marilyn Musgrave, a Colorado Republican running for Congress, is depicted pickpocketing a soldier in Iraq, a reference to her votes on financial aid to troops

BEST EARLY HALLOWEEN COSTUME Kerry wears a protective suit during a NASA tour, providing Republicans with days of one-liners

BEST BLOG SCOOP FreeRepublic.com is first to claim that the documents obtained by CBS News regarding Bush's National Guard service were most likely faked

WEIRDEST BLOG THEORY DailyKos.com posts speculation that the bulge seen on Bush's back during a debate could be a medical device intended to minimize the effects of a stroke he supposedly had when choking on a pretzel

BEST REASON TO DOUBLE-CHECK YOUR PURCHASE BEFORE LEAVING BARNES & NOBLE Unfit for Command, an attack on Kerry's Vietnam service by John E. O'Neill and Jerome Corsi, and Unfit Commander, an anti-Bush book by Glenn W. Smith

MOST AWKWARD FAMILY MOMENT, PART 1 At the first family photo-op for the Kerry-Edwards ticket, Teresa Heinz removes a thumb from the mouth of an Edwards child

MOST AWKWARD FAMILY MOMENT, PART 2 Jenna Bush jokes in her convention speech that her grandmother "thinks Sex and the City is something married people do but never talk about"

MOST ENTERTAINING ENCORE Senator Zell Miller, after his anti-Kerry fulmination at the Republican National Convention, challenges MSNBC's Chris Matthews to a duel