To cleanse the palate, a lighthearted early entry in what’s sure to be an endless procession of progressively grim Mediscare ads over the next 18 months. I’ll level with you — I’m honestly curious to see how far over the top they’ll be willing to take it by the time we get to October 2012. Will they show “restraint” by limiting themselves to spots depicting grandma shivering beneath a blanket under a bridge? Or will the DNC go all the way and actually show us some caskets? With Debbie Wasserman-Schultz in charge, anticipation runs high, my friends.

In fairness, given these poll numbers, the RNC would do the same if the positions were reversed:

Americans clearly don’t want the government to cut Medicare, the government health program for the elderly, or Medicaid, the program for the poor. Republicans in the House of Representatives voted last week to drastically restructure and reduce those programs, while Obama calls for trimming their costs but leaving them essentially intact.

Voters oppose cuts to those programs by 80-18 percent. Even among conservatives, only 29 percent supported cuts, and 68 percent opposed them.

If Republicans try to counter messaging like this with bar graphs, we’ll need caskets for their careers. The only chance we have is to frame it in the same terrifying terms, emphasizing that grandma’s going to end up under the bridge if we don’t act to reform entitlements before we face a Greece-style meltdown. That’ll be a fun ad war, won’t it? By election day, both Obama and the GOP nominee will be cutting commercials in cemeteries, above the tagline, “If only they had voted Democrat/Republican.” Can’t wait.

Update: Ezra Dulis is already on the case with a response vid. As I say, Mediscare tactics can work both ways.