Jack Betts says Senator Elizabeth Dole “missed a golden opportunity” to strengthen her chances for reelection when she waffled on the Outlying Landing Field.

But Dole is much bigger. It’s her numbers. Not her poll numbers, but the numbers the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s brilliant ads have hammered into voters’ minds:

• 40, as in “40 years in Washington”
  
• 93, as in ranked 93^rd in effectiveness among 100 Senators
  
• 92, as in voting with George Bush 92 percent of the time.

The lesson is that good negative ads work. Especially when millions of dollars are put behind them.

When the race began, Dole had the illusion of invincibility. The media fawned over her “rock star” status. She had beaten Erskine Bowles like a drum in 2002, although he dropped millions of his own money into his race.

But Dole was like a boxer with a glass jaw. She had never taken a punch. And Chuck Shumer of the DSCC is a street-fighter.

The DSCC’s research found that North Carolinians thought Dole was a powerful member of the Senate. They were surprised to hear how low she ranked.

Then, when asked how old she was, voters guessed she was in her 50s.

The DSCC, of course, couldn’t run ads attacking her for being 72 (same as John McCain). But the ads producer, Bill Knapp, found another way: He told them she had been in Washington “more than 40 years.” And he put two old guys in rocking chairs in the attack ads.

Dole has blooded Kay Hagan, and she is counting on North Carolina’s default tendency to elect Republican Senators in presidential years. But she has never repaired the damage the DSCC ads have done.

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