lol, my feelings aren't hurt.
yeah, i would agree with you that such a tight race wouldn't necessarily say anything meaningful about the effect of the ads in the general electoral polls.
however, i have seen a couple polls on cnn that said that since the swiftvote ads have been present kerry's rating as a war hero and an effective commander in chief has dropped significantly. forgive me, i cannot find the source at the moment... but it was a double point drop in public perception. now i don't pretend to be able to quantify the effect the drop of perception has directly into the general electoral statistics. still, you would be hard pressed to say that it hasn't had at least some effect.