Fascinating. In a season marked by slimy negative ads - and the strange new public reaction against them - Liddy Dole in North Carolina aired what might have been the sleaziest, a piece that suggested her opponent, Kay Hagan, didn’t believe in God (based on her attendance at a fund-raiser hosted by a group advocating for athiests’ rights). The ad ends with someone - not Hagan, though it was obviously intended to create the impression that Hagan was saying it - yelling “There is no God!”

But Dole lost - indeed, she got crushed. The Politico says the ad is why:

Anzalone said that the high-profile attack ad doomed Dole’s chances to keep the race close. Hagan’s internal polling showed her numbers skyrocketing after the ad aired.

“It would have been a much closer race [if she didn’t air the Godless ad]. Kay would have won by 3-4 points but instead she won big,” Anzalone said. “I just think Dole, in the end, did herself a disservice. She was going to lose that race, but she did not need to lose that race by that margin.”

People got so angry over the ad that they made a point of making sure Dole lost.

This seems to have been the year when either the public finally got fed up with negative ads, or when circumstances simply became so dire that negative ads were seen as irrelevant- fiddling while Rome burns. The Wright ads didn’t help Hillary against Obama; the Ayers business didn’t help McCain against Obama; the “Godless” business actually doomed Dole to big defeat.

Far too early to proclaim this, of course. But maybe the end of the Atwater/Rove era is finally at hand.