No, really. It diminishes us all when someone’s dream is brutally dragged out into the street and shot in the head:

Barack Obama’s presidential campaign has put the brakes on ads that were running in seven states carried by the GOP in the 2004 presidential election, FOX News has learned.

Of the seven states — including Alaska, Georgia, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota — Florida and Virginia are considered key battlegrounds this year. Obama’s decision to stop advertising in those states is raising eyebrows.

Aides to Obama told FOX News that the changes are related to the convention next week. They wouldn’t discuss the specifics of their ad strategy, but the Obama campaign insists that it has not pulled out of those states permanently, calling this a temporary suspension.

Via the Weekly Standard blog, which helpfully points out that Barry’s essentially urinated away $15 million of advertising money in those states over the last three months. This is, in fact, very much in the spirit of the Obama campaign, given that the junior Senator from Illinois has so far spent $323 million this election cycle in order to poll within the margin of error with his opponent. It would be cruel of me to note that Obama was doing considerably better last month, so let me repeat that: Obama was doing considerably better last month.

But, hey, “temporary.” Maybe when the marks from the spanking fade…