In this age of YouTube and ever-diminishing privacy, those who choose to position themselves — and, by extension, their families — in the public eye ought to know not to let a potentially creepy moment like this make it to video.

Take this recent holiday-themed advertisement from Saxby Chambliss, the Georgia senator whose handlers let this PR disaster waiting to happen go to air right as Chambliss faces the possibility of losing his seat in Tuesday’s runoff election. Perhaps when you’re surrounded by yes-people, nobody wants to be the one to sidle up and deliver the whispered suggestion we’re now compelled to make after the fact: Watch it with the grabby paws there, Grandpa Saxby.

However, members of Team Chambliss were also presumably responsible for trotting none other than Sarah Palin out to stump for their boss, so maybe this latest display of cluelessness isn’t all that surprising.

YouTube via Gawker:

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