While the Democrats decide how to end their presidential nomination fight, Republican nominee John McCain is launching his general campaign. The first milestone: Running general-election TV ads.

McCain's spot -- which is slated for an ad buy in New Mexico, according to TPM Election Central -- is your standard gauzy, soft-focus affair, narrated by a fellow with a deep voice and amusingly old-fashioned diction (he says of America, "she is worth protecting"). The ad plays up McCain's prisoner-of-war days, ending with a black-and-white clip of him being interrogated by the North Vietnamese.

The ad concludes with a curious new slogan: "John McCain: The American president Americans have been waiting for."

One guesses this was a second choice; the obvious first choice -- "John 'America' McCain: The American president Americans have been waiting for, in America" -- was likely judged too long.