This promises to be quite the election season. Lots on the line, accusations flyng back and forth, lots of talking heads with inflated egos on the cable networks with nary a clue as to what they’re talking about.

But that’s the fun of it, right?

Lots of yakking out there about this wild and crazy web ad by former Hewlitt-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, who is running in the Republican primary for the right to oppose Babs “call me Senator” Boxer for her Senate seat. People simply don’t know what to make of it. Is it genius? Is it beyond ridiculous? You be the judge.

Then you have this Republican National Committee ad against Alexi Giannoulias, the Illinois state treasurer who won last night’s Democratic primary for the Senate seat once occupied by Barack Obama (now kept warm by Roland Burris). Giannoulias will hook up against moderate Republican Mark Kirk in the fall.

What do these ads tell us?

First of all, even the most traditionally left-leaning prognosticators tell us that, unless some miraculous economic recovery takes place between now and November, this promises to be a gruesome year – perhaps historically so – for Democrats in Washington. Anti-incumbency fever is growing among Independents and conservatives, and Barack Obama nevertheless seems intent on leading his party over the cliff.

Second all, because of the above – especially with Scott Brown’s incredible upset in the Massachusetts Senate race for Ted Kennedy’s old seat – no Democrat seat appears safely locked down this year, so Republicans across the land are making commitments to fiercely contest seats that otherwise might be conceded to incumbent Democrats.

Taken together, all of this means more contested races, more money, and more political ads than ever before. So, how to cut through all the noise and get your message heard? It’s simple. Ads just like the above, ads that are creative and humorous, the kind that will generate a lot of “buzz” and get a lot of play on the internet. Heck, I almost expect at least one candidate for elected office to concoct a stunner based on the wildly-shared “Hitler finds out” videos I mentioned the other day.

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Want further evidence that you don’t necessarily need any common sense or intelligence to be a talking head on the cable networks? Discussing the above-mentioned RNC ad linking Illinois’ state treasurer with loans made to some pretty unsavory characters, one of MSNBC’s daytime anchors, Dylan Ratigan, commented as follows:

Dirty politics reared its ugly head in Illinois. Hours after the state treasurer, Alexei Giannoullias, won the Democratic Senate primary, that is an Italian name, “Giannoullias,” excuse me. Republicans are comparing Giannoullias, an Italian name, to a character from “The Sopranos.”

Now I’m no genius, but even I could tell you Giannoullias is no Italian name. But like NRO’s Jim Geraghty notes, “all those swarthy Mediterranean types look the same from the MSNBC anchor desk”. Heh.

It’s gonna be a long, long election year….

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Pool temp: 54 degrees