LENGTH: 30 seconds.
AIRING: In 16 competitive states.
SCRIPT: Barack Obama: "I'm Barack Obama and I approved this message."
Announcer: "Economics by John McCain. Support George Bush 95 percent of the time. Keep spending 10 billion dollars a month for the war in Iraq while the Iraqis sell oil for record prices, giving Iraq a $79 billion oil surplus and hurting our economy.
"Barack Obama's plan: End the war responsibly. Better schools. No more tax breaks for oil companies. Barack Obama: The middle class first."
KEY IMAGES: A book titled, "Economics," with a picture of McCain on the cover. The book flips open to pictures of McCain and President Bush smiling, soldiers walking in a field, an Iraqi old rig and a factory gate with a lock holding it shut.
ANALYSIS: Obama tries to tie McCain's support for the war in Iraq to America's faltering economy and high gas prices, all while linking McCain to Bush, whose popularity is at historic lows. Obama's campaign has spent much of the summer trying to portray McCain as running for a third Bush term, with limited success.
High gas prices and the sluggish economy have replaced the unpopular war as the campaign's top issue. Obama is trying to link them by blaming McCain for all the above.
The link, however, isn't so simple. High gas prices have contributed to the sluggish economy, but Iraq doesn't control oil prices, which are set globally. Also, the U.S. gets far more oil from Canada, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Venezuela and Nigeria than it does from Iraq.
The ad does tap into an issue that has resonated in Congress: Iraq could finish the year with as much as a $79 billion budget surplus from the influx of oil revenues, while Americans continue to pay for the reconstruction.
The Iraqi surplus estimates come from a recent report by the Government Accountability Office. Meanwhile, the Congressional Research Service estimates the Pentagon is spending $10.3 billion a month in Iraq.
Obama has called for withdrawing U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 16 months of taking office and has criticized McCain's refusal to embrace a timeline for withdrawal. The Iraqis support the general idea of a timeline, and have said Obama is in the right range. Even the Bush administration supports a "time horizon" for withdrawal.
McCain has said he will withdraw the troops only when conditions on the ground dictate it.
McCain voted with Bush's position 95 percent of the time in 2007, according to Congressional Quarterly. But he has had lower percentages, with the lowest at 77 percent in 2005. McCain agrees with Bush on most tax cuts, the war in Iraq and free trade.
However, McCain has also been known to tilt against his party. For example, he voted against a 2005 energy bill in part because it included billions of dollars in subsidies for oil and natural gas production. Obama voted for the measure, and Bush signed it into law.
McCain also has gone toe-to-toe with some Republican leaders over campaign finance reform.
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Analysis by Stephen Ohlemacher.
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On the Net: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v7KYSeGl4bks