Hiding in plain sight is one of Sherlock Holmes's villain's favorite tricks. A group that is launching a $15 million dollar ad blitz is chaired by Ari Fleisher, Bush's former press secretary, so any suggestion the group has ties to the White House would seem pretty valid. The ads are going to run in areas where Republicans want to shore up support for the Iraq war among, well, Republicans. This could well be trying to put fingers in a dike that no longer exists and I wonder if the campaign will work. Sure, most people 'support the troops' but supporting the troops doesn't mean supporting the policy that put them where they are or coming home maimed or in a coffin. Could each of us sit with a flag draped coffin and not feel absolutely terrible or question the deciders that sent another member of our military to his or her death? Yesterday's report that we lost another 14 caused me to pull over and hit my steering wheel in anguish. When is enough just enough?

Will the images in the ads boost support for a war that clearly isn't working (we are well past the 4 year mark) with no end in sight, or will the ads boomerang and lower the already low support for this war? The ads will ask voters to call their congressmen and senators but the operators will only connect callers to their senator's office if they take a pledge to support Bush. Of course, voters can choose to call their Senator directly and not go thru the rigmarole of a patched thru call. Surprisingly, almost all the ads will run in Republican held districts. Again, I'm not sure if it helps to remind voters again and again about the endless war at a time when the traditional media is covering it less. It's their money, they can spend it this way but it could be as badly planned as the war. We'll see.

You can watch the ads yourself. They're not bad but, again, which message do they reinforce? Watch the poll numbers in the key states where they are run and that will tell if they prop Mr. 25% numbers up.