Thank you, Tim Kaine. I may never eat cake again.

I take it back. Russ Potts' TV spot may not be the most bizarre. Have you seen the new Tim Kaine spot with the cake? Potts' may be the goofiest, but Kaine has managed to put forth a TV ad that is downright creepy. Again, I'd like you to see for yourself, so go to kaine2005.org and go to the TV ads section. Basically, it's a female voiceover talking about how Jerry Kilgore wants to cut more and more out of Virginia schools, illustrated by hands slicing into a cake decorated with the proverbial little red schoolhouse and the words Virginia Schools across it. There's a little flag and some shrubbery but it's set against a black backdrop and with each slice the disembodied hands seem to get sloppier with the cutting. It has this weird Carrie sort of vibe so that at one point you are sure a bloody hand is going to pop up out of the cake. But no! It's just tiny Jerry Kilgore! A picture of the Republican candidate is superimposed behind the cake so that it looks like a little Kilgore candle sticking up out of it. The ad goes on to tell us all the wonderful things Kaine would do for schools and then ends on the strangest note of all: A little blonde girl practically snarls into the camera and says, "Hey, Jerry! Pick on someone your own size!"

When little girls start calling you out, you know you've got an image problem, which I'll have more to say about tomorrow...