New Obama ad ties McCain to Ralph Reed

If you live in the great state of Georgia, you'll be able to see a brand spanking new attack ad from the Obama campaign.

The spot entitled "Never" connects Republican presidential candidate John McCain to the former head of the Christian Coalition, Ralph Reed, who was a business associate with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

How do they all interplay? The ad is basically saying that McCain gave Reed a free pass while investigating Abramoff in a lobbying scandal.

Or as Obama's ad-man puts it:

It was one of Washington's biggest scandals and the Republican power-broker Ralph Reed was in the middle of it - in deep with convicted felon and lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

But when the Senate investigated, the Senator in charge never even called Reed to testify.  That Senator? John McCain.

And who is now raising money for McCain's campaign?  Ralph Reed.

For 26 years in Washington, John McCain has played the same old games.  We just can't afford more of the same.

If you think there could be a trend of negative ads coming from the Obama camp, you would be correct. With most polls showing Obama slipping and McCain trending up, the Democrat is fighting back.

The Associated Press reported that 90 percent (9,000 out of 10,000) spots ran last week by the Obama were anti-McCain.  This doesn't mean most people would see those 90 percent however as the 10 percent remaining were aired during the Olympics and those were the happy pro-Obama ads.

As for the latest ad, Reed told the Atlanta Journal Constitution there's no there there.

The McCain camp quickly pointed out that Reed has no official involvement with the campaign.  McCain himself said he doesn't want nor has he sought Reed's help.

As for the ad, the McCain spokesperson Brian Rogers called the ad "ridiculous."

"Because of John McCain, corruption was exposed and people like Jack Abramoff went to jail," he said.