New McCain Ad: Ayers

A new McCain ad has been released on the internet that has the right-side of the blogosphere buzzing. It is entitled Ayers.

As I said, many blogs are discussing it. I'll quote the transcript from Ed Morrissey.

Barack Obama and domestic terrorist Bill Ayers. Friends. They’ve worked together for years. But Obama tries to hide it. Why?

Obama launched his political career in Ayers’ living room. Ayers and Obama ran a radical “education” foundation, together. They wrote the foundation’s by-laws, together. Obama was the foundation’s first chairman. Reports say they, “distributed more than $100 million to ideological allies with no discernible improvement in education.”

When their relationship became an issue, Obama just responded, “This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood.” That’s it?

We know Bill Ayers ran the “violent left wing activist group” called Weather Underground. We know Ayers’ wife was on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list. We know they bombed the Capitol. The Pentagon. A judge’s home. We know Ayers said, “I don’t regret setting bombs. …. I feel we didn’t do enough.”

But Obama’s friendship with terrorist Ayers isn’t the issue. The issue is Barack Obama’s judgment and candor. When Obama just says, “This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood,” Americans say, “Where’s the truth, Barack?”

Barack Obama. Too risky for America.

If nothing else, the commercial puts to rest any doubts that McCain will push Obama hard on the Ayers issue. A 90-second ad is usually only released on the internet--it is very expensive to run an ad of that length on broadcast television. But this one ends with the standard disclaimer of "I'm John McCain and I approve of this message." So it is likely to run in battleground states.

I disagree with Morrissey's conclusions though. He writes:

This also puts pressure on McCain to “say it to his face” in the next debate, as Obama will certainly challenge him to do after this ad airs. Bob Schieffer, the next debate moderator, may already be writing the question for it now.

I'm not convinced that Obama will challenge him on this issue in a live debate. He may--but he may also just scoff at the accusations as he has done for over a year now and trust the media will cover him. To think a Bob Schieffer may already be preparing a direct question about it is wishful thinking.