Hillary Clinton’s latest “3 a.m.” ad is dopey. What economic crisis hits at 3 a.m, demanding immediate resolution? (The ad makes it sound as if Hillary hasn’t paying been attention and has let the economy collapse, the very indictment Democrats have leveled at the Bush administration.) And doesn’t she still have to beat Barack Obama before worrying about John McCain? I frankly don’t get the whole effort, which risks becoming a Saturday Night Live parody.

However, John McCain’s rapid response team was rapid indeed and came back promptly with a funny one-liner (“With ads like that, it’s more likely the call at 3 am is ‘Senator, you just lost another superdelegate.'”) and an ad of their own. This just underscores how predictable and tired the Clinton campaign has become. The sure sign that a campaign is running out of gas is when your opponents’ responses are better than your ads. It seems painfully obvious the Clinton team has run out of material. Perhaps she could tell that one about running through sniper fire at the Treasury Department.