How desperate is Governor Jon Corzine (D) getting in his losing campaign against Chris Christie (R)? He’s now actually making fat jokes about his opponent. Yes, fat jokes.

It is about as subtle as a playground taunt: a television ad for Gov. Jon S. Corzine shows his challenger, Christopher J. Christie, stepping out of an S.U.V. in extreme slow motion, his extra girth moving, just as slowly, in several different directions at once.

In case viewers missed the point, a narrator snidely intones that Mr. Christie “threw his weight around” to avoid getting traffic tickets.

In the ugly New Jersey contest for governor, Mr. Corzine and Mr. Christie have traded all sorts of shots, over mothers and mammograms, loans and lying. But now, Mr. Corzine’s campaign is calling attention to his rival’s corpulence in increasingly overt ways.

The criticism of Christie for driving infractions is ironic coming from Corzine. You may recall that the latter was in a major accident after he had state troopers drive him to and from a major interview at illegal speeds of 90 mph. He wasn’t even wearing a seat belt at the time. Yet that hasn’t stopped him from criticizing Christie for traffic infractions. Amazing.

I think it’ll end up backfiring. If no one’s noticed lately, there are a few Americans who don’t look like Scarlett Johansson or Brad Pitt. Cracking fat jokes with a large percentage of the electorate being overweight seems suicidal.