Ad Roundup: Sarah Palin VP Announcement Inspires Ads

John McCain: “Alaska Maverick”
"Alaska Maverick" compares Sarah Palin and Barack Obama to drive home the point that Palin is a true bi-partisan reformer, while Obama will always vote along Democratic Party lines and will not be a candidate of change. The ad cites quotations from news sources that give examples of efforts that earned her a reputation as a reformer. "[Barack Obama's] reputation?" the ad asks. "Empty words." The ad continues the ongoing argument over Obama's and Palin's experience and who is more ready to be president, quoting a Wall Street Journal editorial that says "Governor Palin's credentials as an agent of reform exceed Barack Obama's." MSNBC's First Read points out some misleading quotes in the ad.

Barack Obama: "Abortion"
Barack Obama's new radio ad is the first to directly address the divisive issue of abortion in this presidential campaign. In the ad, a Planned Parenthood nurse practitioner says, "If Roe v. Wade is overturned, the lives and health of women will be put at risk...McCain wants to take away our right to choose." The narrator then says that "John McCain will make abortion illegal." We then hear a sound bite from Meet the Press where McCain says he's for a constitutional amendment to ban all abortions. Obama spokesman Bill Burton told Politico, "This is a straightforward ad about the very well-documented fact that [McCain] wants to overturn Roe v. Wade and supports a constitutional ban on abortions." In response to the ad, Republican Party communications director Danny Diaz e-mailed Politico and said, "Barack Obama voted against a bill that would have protected infants born alive having survived an abortion attempt. He has offered misleading statements on the issue and is now trying to confuse voters by attacking Senator McCain." McCain's website says, "John McCain believes Roe v. Wade is a flawed decision that must be overturned...Constitutional balance would be restored by the reversal of Roe v. Wade, returning the abortion question to the individual states...However, the reversal of Roe v. Wade represents only one step in the long path toward ending abortion." With this ad and McCain's choice of a anti-abortion running mate in Sarah Palin, abortion could become a major campaign issue in the coming months.

Click here to listen to the ad.

Barack Obama: “Same”
This ad, released the first day of the Republican National Convention, "highlights how George Bush and John McCain truly are two of a kind," according to the press release. The ad says that they "share the same out-of-touch attitude...the same failure to understand the economy...[and] the same questionable ties to lobbyists." The ad then shows a clip of McCain declaring that he voted with the president "over 90 percent of the time, higher than a lot of my even Republican colleagues." It concludes with a familiar tag line, "We just can't afford more of the same." While PolitiFact.com confirms that McCain did support President Bush's policies 90 percent of the time, during his speech last night at the Republican Convention McCain eagerly talked about his "maverick" reputation: "I've been called a maverick, someone who...marches to the beat of his own drum...I don't work for a party...I work for you."