That's what Sen. Hillary Clinton is wearing in her viral video/campaign ad that starts with the usual cloying music of a political commercial and a husky voice intoning, "It's 3 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep. But there's a phone in the White House and it's ringing. Something's happening in the world "

It goes on to tell us all while a phone rings in the background that Clinton is qualified to pick up the receiver, to lead us when danger calls or at least when dramatic music erupts. The voice ends with "It's 3 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep. Who do you want answering the phone?"

That's when Clinton appears, receiver in hand, wearing a sharp gold jacket and a necklace. Her makeup is perfect.

At 3 a.m.?

Call me crazy, but wouldn't she be in a pair of flannel first jammies and sporting a case of bed head?

Plus, the phone rings six times. Come on people. Something is happening in the world. For the love of Mike, pick it up. This is the White House.

OK, so I'm quibbling with Clinton and her choice of using fear to sell her candidacy.

You know what she's really saying: "It's 3 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep. But Barack Obama is about to answer the phone, shortly after which rack and ruin will arrive because he is inexperienced with bogeymen. And the world is full of bogeymen."

It's a common strategy, the most famous being Goldwater's daisy ad in 1964. Other notables in this category are Willie Horton in 1988, Mondale's red phone in the 1984 Democratic primary and other less distinguished attempts to scare the bejesus out of us, hoping that fear equals votes.

Dramatic, political

In a YouTubian world, chances of mimicry are vast as evidenced by the considerable number of spoofs the Clinton spot has spawned along the Internet. A sampling revealed they were more numerous than funny, but the creative spirit is alive and well.

The Clinton ad, however flawed, is designed to get voters to consider leadership, a rather hairy term in election years, one of those catch-alls that is better witnessed than explained.

The whole 3 a.m. premise is the stuff of a bad TV movie. Besides, things happen in the world at 9:45 a.m. or right after the afternoon coffee break, too. We'll chalk the-middle-of-the-night schtick up to dramatic and political license.

Still, she raises a good point although it asks the wrong question.

Who answers the phone is far less important than the people he or she gathers to make a decision, whether that be in the situation room, the Oval Office or Camp David.

I want a president who has assembled a room full of people willing to tell him or her the truth, not what's politically expedient, not what will sell, not what will look good when Olbermann, Limbaugh or Drudge have their way with it.

Nor do I want a president counting on a room full of advisers who dismiss the voice or the will of the people with a perfunctory "So?"

Sifting, sorting

One would hope the American voting public would cast its most precious commodity based on more than campaign ads or Internet rumors.

The qualities of leadership are far more than what's portrayed in a single commercial.

But leadership is among the qualities I'll be weighing along with intelligence, independence, character, courage, compassion, articulation that sort of thing.

Never has more information been available to voters. Some of it is actually good, too. Sifting and sorting is no easy task.

Campaign commercials are a reality, their repetition far more annoying than their message. They like rumor, innuendo, downright lies and some truth are all part of election year reality.

According to my educated guess, most people have already made up their minds about whom to give the world's most powerful job.

With some effort, those who haven't can, if they want, decide based on good information.