SEDONA, AZ — While John McCain meets privately with senior advisers at his northern Arizona retreat, his campaign continues its daily barrage of campaign ads, today slamming Barack Obama on Iran.

The new spot, “Tiny,” released on the same day the DNC is set to focus on the theme of national security, cites comments the Illinois Senator made in Oregon in May downplaying Iran’s threat when compared to that of the former Soviet Union.

“Obama says Iran is a ‘tiny’ country, ‘doesn’t pose a serious threat.’ Terrorism, destroying Israel, those aren’t ’serious threats’?” the narrator in the new ad intones. “Obama — dangerously unprepared to be president.

But the spot takes some liberties with the truth and accuses Obama of downplaying the Iranian threat without noting that the Democrat was comparing Iran to America’s Cold War rival.

Obama’s original May 18th comment:

“Strong countries and strong Presidents talk to their adversaries. That’s what Kennedy did with Khrushchev. That’s what Reagan did with Gorbachev. That’s what Nixon did with Mao. I mean think about it. Iran, Cuba, Venezuela — these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don’t pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us. And yet we were willing to talk to the Soviet Union at the time when they were saying we’re going to wipe you off the planet.”

The Obama campaign is calling the ad a distortion of the truth.

“John McCain is distorting Barack Obama’s words to cover up for the fact that it’s the failed Bush-McCain approach to foreign policy and the Bush-McCain war in Iraq that that have strengthened Iran and endangered Israel,” said Obama campaign spokesman Hari Sevugan. “If John McCain was serious about dealing with the threat from Iran, he would join Barack Obama’s bipartisan effort in the Senate to step up sanctions on Iran instead of adopting the same tired, old Bush-Rove playbook.”

The ad is set to air on national cable, in Denver and in select markets in IA, MI, NM, NV, PA, OH, WI and MO according to a campaign aide.

Within hours of Obama’s announcement of Sen. Joe Biden as VP, the McCain campaign has already released its first response ad using the Delaware Senator’s words against the new ticket.

The spot begins with a Biden exchange during an August 2007 Democratic primary debate when Biden was asked about his previous statements critiquing Obama’s readiness for the oval office.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: You were asked, “Is he ready?” You said, “I think he can be ready but right now, I don’t believe he is. The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training.”

JOE BIDEN: I think that I stand by the statement.

The ad then throws in some Biden praise for McCain from a 2005 Daily Show appearance.

“I would be honored to run with or against John McCain, because I think the country would be better off,” Biden tells Jon Stewart, though the Delaware Senator has obviously changed his tone about McCain more recently.

The argument the ad makes is simple: Even Obama’s runningmate doesn’t think he is ready to be President–the same case McCain has been making for months.

Though it is safe to say that this is not the first version of this TV ad we will see. Obama HQ in Chicago already has a few ready clips of Romney trashing McCain during their primary battle if the GOPer taps his main primary opponent to be his number two next week…

As he prepares to launch a “Service to America” biography tour next week, Sen. John McCain launched his first TV ad of the general election Friday, seeking to highlight his patriotism and career of military service.

Titled, “624787,” his military serial number, the 60-second ad will be airing in his neighboring state of New Mexico–a battleground state that Democrats took in 2000 and President Bush reclaimed by a slim margin in 2004.

“Keep that faith. Keep your courage. Stick together. Stay strong. Do not yield. Stand up. We’re Americans. And we’ll never surrender,” McCain says at the top of the spot. A narrator takes over and asks rhetorical questions about McCain’s devotion to protecting the nation and it’s liberties before declaring, “John McCain, the American president Americans have been waiting for.”  The ad includes footage of McCain as a POW in Vietnam being questioned by interrogators.

During McCain’s bio tour next week, he is set to campaign in key cities and places that intend to showcase his service to the country:

–Meridian, MS–naval air station where he served as a flight instructor
–Annapolis, MD–where he attended the Naval Academy
–Pensacola, FL–where he had flight training
–Jacksonville, FL–where he came after his release as a POW from Vietnam
–Prescott, AZ–where his AZ Senate predecessor and 1964 GOP nominee Barry Goldwater launched his general election campaign.

SCRIPT FOR THE MCCAIN AD AFTER JUMP…

(more…)

He lived for fifty years in the United States without the ability to speak. Born with a condition known as cleft palate–a birth defect that, in most cases, is easily correctable–James Lowe was without a voice until well into his adult life. A retired coal miner from West Virginia, Lowe had no health insurance. His condition was not addressed until a doctor from a free health clinic came to his home and fixed it.

This is the story that presidential candidate John Edwards tells as he travels throughout the state of Iowa to rally support in the final weeks before the caucuses. For Mr. Edwards, Lowe’s plight is symbolic of all Americans who cannot afford health care–and an inspiration for his new TV ad titled “Voice,” calling for a universal health care plan, which he says has been opposed by entrenched special interest groups. The belief that health care is every individual’s right–not a privilege–has become a cause that the former senator pledges to fight for in his run for the White House.

“He had no voice for 50 years, because with no health care, he couldn’t get a simple operation,” Edwards says in the ad.

“Fifty years without a voice — in America. This is wrong. It is immoral. When are we going to stop letting drug companies, insurance companies and their lobbyists run this country?”