U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole's ad has been dinged again.

Writing on a Washington Post blog about the worst leadership performances of 2008, leadership coach John Baldoni criticized Dole's last-minute "Godless Americans" attack ad on rival Kay Hagan.

Fearing that her campaign for re-election to the U.S. Senate was losing, she approved a television ad against her opponent calling her "godless." The voters of North Carolina ignored the ad and elected Kay Hagan, a former Sunday school teacher and Presbyterian elder (as well as an accomplished state senator), as their senator. Ms. Dole may have helped her re-election cause if she had been more visible; voters perceived that she spent too much time in D.C. rather than in her home state.

Baldoni gave the ad the "Trash My Opponent Award."