REMEMBER THE DAISY AD?: In 1964 the Lyndon Johnson campaign ran an ad with a little girl picking petals off a flower, counting "one, two, three..." In the background a man's voice started a countdown, "ten, nine, eight..." leading up to a mushroom cloud. The idea was to remind people of their fears of Barry Goldwater's loose cannon, shoot from the hip approach to war and peace. It was vicious, unfair, and brilliant. It worked because that fear was already there, and the ad just crystallized it. They only had to run it once, and then everybody talked about it. Johnson won by the second biggest landslide ever.

Finally some Bush opponents seem to have found an equally explosive ad to run now. It is also brilliant at articulating feelings that are already out there.

Pollsters Greenberg, Quinlan & Rosner tested the ad and found that after viewing it just once, there was an almost unprecedented 8 point gross shift away from Bush in voting intentions among the 750-person test sample. It also badly eroded support for Bush across a wide range of measures including confidence in his Iraq policy and key measures of character including honesty and sharing the concerns of ordinary people.

We won't see it in Texas, of course, since it's only going up in swing states. But you can watch it on your computer, with either Quicktime or Windows Media. DO NOT watch this at work. See the ad, called "He Just Doesn't Get it", in all its power at Win Back Respect. (Thanks to The American Street.)