So you're driving down the road, and you glance in the rearview mirror, and...aack! In what may be his final negative spot of the 2008 campaign, Barack Obama may have released their year's single creepiest spot. Not that it's offensive or unethical: The ad sticks to Democratic boilerplate tying McCain to a slew of unpopular elements of the Bush era. But the repeated shots of the 43rd president superimposed into car mirrors manage to weird me out. It's a bit like those Burger King ads where the vaguely scary fiberglass king disembodied grinning head pops out from behind doors or winds up in bed next to unsuspecting would-be consumers. Of course, the BK ads didn't change my opinions on the the Whopper, but maybe if the spots had featured the "Creepy King" in the rearview mirror, I'd have involuntarily stepped on the gas all the same.
--Michael Schaffer