The POW imagery in McCain’s ads of late seems to be working for him so here’s Rudy following suit, eschewing policy and going straight for the gut. Byron York and Patrick Ruffini are wondering whether Bhutto’s assassination will affect the primary by reorienting voters towards foreign policy to the advantage of McCain and Giuliani. My guess: not really, unless there are sudden dramatic violent aftershocks to this. My hunch is that to the extent Americans are paying attention to Pakistan at all (beyond the Democrats’ talking point that that’s where the “real” terrorists are), they’ve already written it off as a problem that’ll need managing for years to come. If, occasionally, a party leader is bumped off, well, that’s just Islamic politics for you. If civil war breaks out, though, and those nukes are suddenly in play, then of course all bets are off.

Ad-related footnote for the Fredheads: It appears your guy is a little short this month. If you want him to get that ad we linked yesterday on the air, you’ve got another 31 hours to kick in.

Update: Geraghty and Jonathan Martin also think the Bhutto effect should be negligible. Note Geraghty’s point especially about the candidates’ various Pakistan policies. The left can whine all it wants about Bush — with good reason in one respect — but there really isn’t much the U.S. can do except have a crack contingency plan to secure those nukes if and when the time comes.