I must admit that my heart skipped a beat while watching the first TV ad (above) in favor of the six measures on the California special election ballot. The ad has no policy content worth commenting upon. Politically, it takes a swipe "politicians," which you don't want to think too hard about it because you might remember that it's the state political leadership who cooked up these propositions. No, this ad is about developing a feeling and targeting a demographic.

That demographic is your blogger: a dad who loves baseball and still reads newspapers. (I live in an apartment, not a house with a lawn -- this is 21st century urban Southern California after all -- but I'd like to live in a house like that). It's an interesting visual approach, particularly in an era when California political ads usually show a mix of voters or working people of various sexes and ethnicities. The approach is clearly targeted to independent and Republican men, a demographic that might be expected to support a spending limit but are not rallying to Prop 1A and the accompanying measures.