In pop culture terms, the moment that the presidential race turned around was the release of a humorous ad poking fun at Barack Obama’s celebrity. In response, the Obama campaign acted as though McCain had done something despicably and unforgivably negative — a wildly disproportionate reaction to an ad that was more of a poke or a jab than a full-on battering. From that time forward, Obama has seemed unsure, vascillating, and angry, to the extent that he even made an enraged reference to the charge in his convention speech.

If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. I don’t agree with Jennifer; I think the new Obama ad jabbing at John McCain is the most effective one his campaign has yet done, and the fact that it has been done with a light touch rather than a sledgehammer only makes it better. The ad points out that McCain came to Washington in 1982, and shows fake file footage of a beehive-hairdo’ed woman talking on a shoe-sized cell phone and some kids sitting around a Commodore 64 computer. By then pointing out that McCain says he doesn’t know how to work a computer or use a cell phone, the Obama camp makes a neat connection to their message that McCain is “out of touch.” Which is another way of saying “old,” which Obama can’t say, but which is a message he wants very much to impart.

“After eight years of a president who was out of touch,” the ad concludes, “we can’t afford more of the same.”

Now that’s how you play this game.