Obama’s team knows how to produce a Christmas ad. He has his whole family around him and they all look beautiful, there’s a fire in the fireplace, gifts under the tree and it looks as if they were all just rasslin’ around and looked up, saw the camera and started thanking everyone for being so gosh darn nice to the Obama family. Having the cute as can be daughters deliver the last lines is gold. This ad takes a solid second place behind the Huckabee ad, but it won’t generate any useful controversy.

There’s one badly written line, when Obama says “We all have a stake in each other.” Ouch. Is Hillary’s stake six inches deep in Obama’s back or sticking out of Edwards’ forehead? Both, most likely.

The serene scene doesn’t turn suddenly into a mad slasher flick, but it’s a clanger of a line in an otherwise very good ad. It’s head and shoulders above both Hillary’s and Edwards’ ads.