Dubious Claims in Obama's Ads Against McCain, Despite Vow of Truth

Sen Barack Obama (D-IL) is running advertisements on radio and television that have matched the dubious nature of Sen John McCain's more questionable spots. In all, Sen Obama has released at least five commercials that have been criticized as misleading or untruthful against Sen McCain's positions in the past two weeks. Sen Obama drew complaints from many of the independent fact-checking groups and editorial writers who just two weeks ago were criticizing Sen McCain for producing a large share of this year's untruthful spots. Some Democrats expressed concern that Obama, in stretching the truth in some of his advertisements, was putting at risk the "above politics" persona he has tried to cultivate. And other Democrats shrugged off the questionable advertisements, saying they were relieved Obama was responding to continuing, frequently misleading assaults from McCain. They did not distinguish between advertisements that are tough on McCain and those that are misleading. The disputed spots from Mr. Obama coincide with a significantly increased advertising push by his campaign and the Democratic National Committee that has taken a decidedly negative tone in the past few weeks, perhaps reflecting the natural progression of a tight campaign. CMAG, a group that tracks political advertising, said Thursday that the $10 million Mr. Obama had spent over the previous week on advertisements represented a nearly $4 million increase from the week before.