Obama adjusts ad strategy during convention

Barack Obama began scaling back TV advertising for the convention week, pulling ads in Republican strongholds in the South and Mountain West to concentrate on ad wars with rival John McCain in battleground states.

The two campaigns continued to spin out attack ads Friday, casting each other as elites who couldn't possibly grasp the needs of common Americans.

But Democratic and Republican officials familiar with Obama's ad purchases said the campaign had decided to pull ads from Alaska, Indiana, Georgia, North Carolina, Montana and North Dakota during next week's convention. Two Democratic officials, speaking not for attribution because they were not authorized to discuss ad strategy, said the campaign intends to return to those state airwaves the following week. Obama has already pulled ads in Miami, but there were conflicting reports on whether he planned to silence his ad presence in the rest of Florida.

"The people in these states have not seen their last Obama campaign ad," said Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor.

If the campaign doesn't follow through with those plans, that would signal a significant strategic shift. Obama has wanted to expand the field of contested states, spending money in regions that typically voted Republican.

At the same time, Obama has spent heavily on advertising. Reports filed this week with the Federal Election Commission showed that of the $55 million he spent in July, about $32 million was on advertising. Obama, who bypassed the public financing system for the general election, must build his cash reserves to confront McCain in the fall.

McCain on Friday reeled off yet another ad portraying his Democratic rival as nothing more than a celebrity. "Celebrities don't have to worry about family budgets, but we sure do," the announcer states. The ad is running on national cable and in Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Northern Virginia and Wisconsin.

Obama, capitalizing on McCain's hesitation when asked how many houses he owned, countered quickly with his own I-know-you-are-but-what-am-I riposte on cable television. "Maybe McCain thinks this economy is working — for folks like him." That ad is running on national cable only.

The negative tone has been increasingly dominating the air waves, especially after Obama returned from his trip to Europe and the Middle East last month to find himself the target of several McCain ads.

"Once that genie is out of the bottle there is no getting it back in," said Evan Tracey, who tracks political ads as head of TNS Media Intelligence/Campaign Media Analysis Group.

Obama's ad displays McCain in a golf cart with the first President Bush at the Bush compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. The announcer intones: "Call it 'Country Club Economics.'"

The announcer continues: "How many houses does he own? John McCain says he can't even remember anymore. Well, it's seven. No wonder McCain just said the fundamentals of our economy are strong. And anyone making less than five-million-dollars-a-year is middle-class."

McCain this week did stumble when asked how many houses he owned, telling a reporter he would have to check. A review by The Associated Press shows that McCain and his family own at least eight homes. In a radio interview he also said the "the fundamentals of our economy are strong." But he went on to say: "We've got terribly big challenges now, whether it be housing or employment.... It's very, very tough times. It's very tough. But we're still the most innovative, the most productive, the greatest exporter, the greatest importer."

The reference to a $5-million-a-year middle class is based on a joking comment McCain made last weekend with the Rev. Rick Warren. Asked to define the word "rich," McCain promoted his tax policies and added: "I think if you are just talking about income, how about $5 million?" The audience laughed. He then cautioned that: "I'm sure that comment will be distorted."

Obama would raise taxes on higher income taxpayers. The description of his economic plan as a "recipe for economic disaster" is from an editorial in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He would seek to let upper income tax rates return to Clinton era levels of 36 and 39.6 percent. He also has proposed an additional 2-4 percent payroll tax on workers with incomes above $200,000.

The Tax Policy Center, a left-of-center think tank affiliated with the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama would give larger tax cuts to low- and moderate-income households while raising taxes on high-income taxpayers. The center's analysis found that McCain would cut taxes across the board and give the biggest cuts to the highest-income households.

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