Dartblog

In an advertisement to air during Barack Obama’s nomination acceptance speech tonight, John McCain congratulates his opponent. As Jake wrote earlier, the nomination by a major party of a black man is indeed an event in history. Nothing terribly special, I should not think: in a society whose Supreme Court, State Department, Department of Defense, Congress, and every other institution worthy of mention have had black executives, what can one can call the lack of a black president but happenstance? Still, the ardor of breathing in a milestone moment moves us all.

But setting that aside for a moment, here’s another ad, just now beginning to run in “swing” states. Note the very last clip, from Mr. Obama himself. “Too clever by half”—he was eliding into a criticism of Hillary Clinton, you see—suddenly takes on new meaning.