I Am Not A Witch

This week’s top campaign ad comes from Christine O’Donnell, GOP Senatorial candidate in Delaware:

I don’t think she’s a witch either! But doesn’t this remind you of Nixon’s “I am not a crook”? Perhaps not. Anyway Fred Davis, who made the ad, explains the concept here.

UPDATE: See Toby Harnden for more. I agree with Toby that there’s power in the “ordinary folks” approach (and that focusing on the witch sillyness is a means by which O’Donnell can disarm other, slightly more substantive, criticisms by suggesting that they’re just as daft as the witchcraft stuff). However there’s also a limit to folksiness: at some point, as Sarah Palin discovered, you need to have the policy chops to persuade voters you can really do the job. That doesn’t mean you need to be an intellectual giant but you do need a certain command of the issues that’s greater than kitchen homilies and homespun wisdom.