Delighted?

I have to pronouce myself less than delighted with the Obama campaign's new "Delighted" ad. The endorsement of the most loathed vice president in the history of democracy, of course, represents a boon to the Democrats. But, like a hitter watching a fat, slow pitch come over the plate, they've used the opportunity to take an undisciplined whack at John McCain, tittering about Cheney's endorsement and McCain's 90 percent record of voting with the administration but failing to use the chance to remined voters why the endorsement is so objectionable. Warmongering, high-end tax giveaways, cronyism, incompetence, polarization, politicization of science, abuse of power, torture....that's the status quo Obama's campaigning against. Tough to jam it all into a 30-second spot, true, but reducing it to gibes about one (appropriately) unpopular man just makes Obama look like a glib partisan.

--Michael Schaffer