Over the years, Republicans have used lots of tactics to win presidential elections. But here's one I never expected to see: running as Democrats.

That's the idea behind the latest TV spot for John McCain and Sarah Palin.

It brags about things that are generally more congenial to Democratic voters than to Reaganites. McCain, it tells us, "took on the drug industry," while Palin "took on Big Oil." It goes on: "He battled Republicans and reformed Washington. She battled Republicans and reformed Alaska." Not a word about battling Democrats. If you didn't know better, you'd think they had just been nominated by the party of Roosevelt and Clinton.

This is just the latest feint in that direction. An earlier McCain ad (video is below) said, "Washington is broken," and "We're worse off than we were four years ago"--neglecting to mention that his party has controlled the presidency for the last eight years and both houses of Congress for most of the last 14. Usually, when you say the country is worse off than it was four years ago, you're asking voters to evict the president's party.

That commercial, too, sounded themes shamelessly plagiarized from John Edwards: "Only McCain has taken on Big Tobacco, the drug companies . . . He'll reform Wall Street, battle Big Oil." Anti-capitalist populism may be dead in the Democratic party, but it seems to have found new life in the GOP.

Will this work? There's no telling, but if McCain and Palin think it's a good idea to impersonate Democrats, Barack Obama and Joe Biden might want to make sure voters know who the real Democrats are.