Someone tell Tim Kaine that the Russians are shelling Gori, Georgia.

The artillery barrage – the first against Gori since the five-day conflict began – suggested that, despite denials in Moscow, Russian ground troops had advanced into undisputed Georgian territory from South Ossetia. Gori, a town of about 70,000 people that was the birth place of Stalin, lies 15 miles south of Georgia’s internal border with the breakaway region. A Dutch journalist was killed and another wounded after a fragmentation shell exploded outside a press centre where western reporters in Gori, including reporters for The Daily Telegraph, have based themselves since the conflict began.

Kaine, this morning: “I’m very, very happy that the Senator’s request for a ceasefire has been complied with by President Medvedev.”

“Obama-Kaine 2008: Leadership that takes the Russians at their word.”

I miss the candidate who was reminding us about Russians’ propensity to carefully calibrate options before expelling waste.