Obama Starts Fightback With Ad Questioning Mccain's Integrity

Barack Obama tried to resuscitate his campaign yesterday by mounting the most personal attack yet on John McCain, with an advert accusing the self-styled man of integrity and former Vietnam war hero of fighting a dishonorable and dishonest election campaign.

The ad marked the start of what was billed as a Democratic fightback after a fortnight in which the Republicans dominated the news agenda and cut into and, in some instances, overtook Obama's lead in the polls.

The stakes were underlined in a poll yesterday showing that McCain was leading Obama in Ohio - the state that decided the 2004 election. The Suffolk University poll put McCain on 46% compared with 42% for Obama. Voters also said they trusted McCain more than Obama.

But the ad, with its focus on the tone of the election campaign, seemed out of touch on a day when public attention was focused on the Wall Street crisis.

The time lag in Obama's campaign was underscored by the McCain camp's quick reaction in putting out an ad on the economy yesterday morning, called Crisis.

"Our economy in crisis. Only proven reformers John McCain and Sarah Palin can fix it," the ad opened.

Obama's campaign later attempted to exploit McCain's insistence that the US economy was fundamentally strong.

In its ad called Honour, Obama's camp said McCain was breaking a promise made in 2000 not to take the low road to the White House. The campaign team said: "He's running one of the most dishonorable, dishonest campaigns Americans have ever seen and the campaign a person runs tells you a lot about the way they'll govern."

The team cited ads by McCain that have accused Obama of supporting explicit sex education for five-year-olds, and sweeping tax rises.

The Obama ad went to the heart of McCain's profile. The former navy pilot has built his reputation on abiding by a code of honor in which service to the country comes before personal advancement. The Republican's campaign slogan is Country First. The decision to go after McCain's character reflects nervousness within the Obama camp over the extent of the Republican poll gains and Sarah Palin's popularity.

Obama's running mate, Joe Biden, also concentrated on McCain's personality during a speech in Saint Clair Shores, Michigan. He recalled that McCain had been the victim of scurrilous attacks during his unsuccessful battle for the Republican nomination against George Bush in 2000. "And now, some of the very same people and the tactics he once deplored his campaign now employs," Biden said.

By midday yesterday, Obama's team had switched its focus to the economy. But the slow pace of the shift will alarm Democrats already jittery about the way the campaign is being run.

Obama called the fall of Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch "the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression". He said he did not blame McCain, but "I do fault the economic philosophy he subscribes to. It's a philosophy we've had for the last eight years - one that says we should give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else."

McCain, in a statement issued before the markets opened, ruled out government help for Lehman Brothers and called for reform of Wall Street.