By CARL CAMPANILE
June 20, 2008
Barack Obama yesterday unveiled his first ad of the general-election campaign, painting himself as a true-blue American with heartland values.
The 60-second biographical spot - entitled "Country I Love" and airing in 18 key states - attempts to address his weaknesses among white working-class voters and others who have questioned his patriotism.
It opens with the candidate, wearing an American flag pin, looking into the camera. The presumptive Democratic nominee in the past has caught flak for declining to wear the pin, and he has come under fire for the rants of his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, and for being chummy with radical former Weather Underground bomber Bill Ayers.
A recent Pew Research Center poll found that 90 percent of Americans consider Republican rival John McCain a patriot, while only 61 percent felt that way about Obama.
"I'm Barack Obama. America is a country of strong families and strong values. My life's been blessed by both," he says in the ad.
He also emphasizes the white side of his biracial roots. He was raised by his white mother and white grandparents, and photos of him with them are shown, but none of his Kenyan father.
"We didn't have much money, but they taught me values straight from the Kansas heartland where they grew up. Accountability and self-reliance. Love of country. Working hard without making excuses. Treating our neighbors as you'd like to be treated. It's what guided me as I worked my way up - taking jobs and loans to make it through college," he says.
"I'll never forget those values, and if I have the honor of taking the oath of office as president, it will be with a deep and abiding faith in the country I love."
But GOP consultant Scott Reed said Obama "is trying to get around the fact that he's the most liberal member of the United States Senate and the most liberal Democratic candidate for president since George McGovern."
