Barack Obama has begun an advertising campaign attacking his presidential rival John McCain as being out of touch with the economic struggles of the middle class.
The negative ads are running on local stations in states expected to be pivotal in November at the same time his campaign runs generally positive ads nationally.
One spot airing in cities including Philadelphia and East Lansing, Mich., contrasts McCain’s statement that “we have had a pretty good, prosperous time with low unemployment” with statements from people such as, “The prices of gas are up; the prices of milk are up.”
But McCain’s statement was made in January, before the economy took a turn for the worse, The New York Times pointed out. He has more recently run an ad stating, “We’re worse off than we were four years ago.”
Another ad airing in Tampa, Fla., and about a dozen other cities, features a mock book, “Economics” by John McCain, outlining his approach as: “Support George Bush 95 percent of the time, keep spending $10 billion a month for the war in Iraq.”
Obama’s ad campaign in the key states “is his first major volley of spots against Mr. McCain that was not in response to an attack from him or the Republican Party,” The Times reported, adding that the ads “have clear potential to undercut Mr. Obama’s promise to remain above the fray of what he calls ‘the same old Washington games.’”
McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds called the new approach “a sucker-punch strategy.”
© 2013 Newsmax. All rights reserved.