President-elect Obama’s much-vaunted speechwriter, Jon “not that one” Favreau, has been all over the blogosphere for the last week. Seems the 27-year-old got himself photographed at a recent party in an unfortunate position with a life sized cardboard cutout of the next Secretary of State. (That’s Favreau on the left. The guy in the hat and the “Obama Staff” t-shirt remains unidentified at press time.)

It hit Drudge but did not really go too far at first, but now my friend former White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers has written a piece for Vanity Fair on it.

“Oh, what to do. An incredibly talented young aide, to an impossibly idealistic new president, gets caught doing something indefensibly stupid and undeniably sexist. Everyone is uncomfortable. But should anyone be held accountable? Apparently not. . . .

“What’s bugging me is his intention. He isn’t putting his hand on her ‘chest,’ as most of the articles and conversations about the picture have euphemistically referred to it. Rather, his hand—cupped just so—is clearly intended to signal that he’s groping her breast. And why? Surely, not to signal he finds her attractive. Au contraire. It’s an act of deliberate humiliation. Of disempowerment. Of denigration. And it disgusts me.”

I’ve got to say I agree. I also agree with dee dee when she points out that there is often a double standard when its racism vs. sexism. Absolutely the uproar would be huge if it were Michelle Obama or if he were wearing a sheet.

But there is another element of this that fascinates me. According to the Washington Post, Favreau’s picture was on Facebook for just two hours. In that time it has left enough of a trail to turn into a bomb. It’s to the point now where Obama must do something.

McCain fired his aide Soren Dayton for posting an Obama-Wright video to YouTube — what will the president-elect do?

Ironically, it reminds me of how it seemed when the kids who ran the Clinton campaign were just coming into the White House after 1992 — it was like the Keystone Kops half the time, totally disorganized and everything had the smell of a college dorm.

For their part, Senator Clinton’s staff has played it cool: Clinton spokesperson Philippe Reines wrote that she is “pleased to learn of Jon’s obvious interest in the State Department, and is currently reviewing his application.”