McCain ad hits Obama’s positions

Nevadans began seeing their first negative television ads in the presidential race Friday, as Republican John McCain launched a spot sharply critical of Democrat Barack Obama on foreign policy.

"Barack Obama never held a single Senate hearing on Afghanistan," a male announcer states as the screen shows a photo of a laughing Obama holding a microphone. "He hasn't been to Iraq in years. He voted against funding our troops -- positions that helped him win his nomination. Now Obama is changing to help himself become president."

The music turns from ominous to warm as the narrator says, "John McCain has always supported our troops and the surge that's working."

The 30-second ad is airing in 11 battleground states, including Nevada, according to McCain's campaign. It comes as Obama is preparing for a much-hyped overseas trip to Europe, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Obama chairs the European Affairs subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and has not, in that role, called hearings on Afghanistan. His campaign counters that Afghanistan would primarily come under a different subcommittee. Obama's campaign also noted that McCain had skipped several hearings on Afghanistan held by the Senate Armed Services Committee, on which McCain serves.

Obama has visited Iraq just once, in January 2006, while McCain last went there in March. In May 2007, Obama voted against a military funding bill for Iraq and Afghanistan, although he has voted in favor of all the other war funding bills during his time in the Senate.

A spokesman for Obama called the ad "patently misleading" and criticized McCain for going negative.

"Given his calls for a civil campaign, it's disappointing that Senator McCain has slipped so easily into the same, tired campaign tactics that have become so familiar to the American people," Bill Burton said.

Contact reporter Molly Ball at mball@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919.