Adwatch: McCain criticizes Obama on Iraq
TITLE: "Troop Funding."
LENGTH: 30 seconds
AIRING: National cable and Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.
SCRIPT: VOICEOVER: "Barack Obama never held a single Senate hearing on Afghanistan. He hasn't been to Iraq in years. He voted against funding our troops. Positions that helped him win his nomination. Now Obama is changing to help himself become president. John McCain has always supported our troops and the surge that's working. McCain. Country first."
JOHN MCCAIN: "I'm John McCain and I approve this message."
KEY IMAGES: Still photos of Obama set against maps of Afghanistan and Iraq and newspaper and journal excerpts supporting what is said in the voiceover. Still photographs of McCain with American flags behind him.
ANALYSIS: The McCain campaign released this tough new ad in 11 battleground states to coincide with Obama's high-profile trip to Iraq and Afghanistan. It reinforces arguments that McCain and his surrogates have made repeatedly about the Illinois senator: that he is a newcomer to foreign affairs who has pandered to the left wing of his party but done little to educate himself about the complicated military situation in the Middle East.
Without saying so directly, the ad suggests Obama's visit to the region is a political stunt even though McCain has said he supports Obama's decision to make the trip.
FACT CHECK: The ad's most inflammatory charge — that Obama voted against troop funding in Iraq and Afghanistan — is misleading. The Illinois senator consistently voted to fund the troops once elected to the Senate, a point Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton made during the primaries when questioning whether his anti-war rhetoric was reflected in his actions.
Under pressure from anti-war activists, Obama did vote 'no' on a major troop funding bill in May 2007, after he became a presidential candidate.
Obama chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's subcommittee on European affairs, which has jurisdiction over NATO. Since NATO maintains troops in Afghanistan, Obama did have jurisdiction to call a hearing on the situation there if he chose to do so.
Until this week's Middle East trip, Obama had been to Iraq only once, in January 2006 and had never visited Afghanistan. McCain has been to Iraq eight times, Afghanistan four times.
Analysis by Associated Press Writer Beth Fouhy