Blagojevich spends $500,000 on a rolling pin

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch runs down how the Blagojevich campaign is spending "more money than they know what to do with." The bulk of the story centers around the television commercial ad in which a photo of a rolling pin appears above Topinka's head in the commercial, an announcer intones: "Topinka opposes an assault weapons ban . . . because she says it could ban a rolling pin. What's she thinking?"

This ad, part of an early media blitz in which Blagojevich "spent a remarkable $5.3 million on TV ads in key markets - including a rare, early foray into the St. Louis market." The rolling pin ad ran over 500 times in the Chicago area, but did not run in the St. Louis area at all, that area received ads touting the governor's record on education and jobs, with a mere $100,000 spent. Topinka's campaign believes the amount of money spent is more like $8 to $10 million with no televised response from her side which has decided to wait until closer to the election to buy television time.

Scattered throughout the story are digs at Topinka for not utilizing television ads, comments like: "No response" to Blagojevich's ads, "She's been basically invisible..." etc. The question from here is, are we electing people on the basis of television ads? Looks like it, especially when political observers seem to think so.