AdWatch: A lone lawmaker doesn't "pass" bills

In this June 18, 2008 file photo, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., center, and Ret. Gen. Wesley Clark, talk with generals and other flag officers during a military and foreign affairs round table discussion in Washington. Clark, a former Democratic presidential candidate now supporting Barack Obama, said Sunday June 29, 2008 John McCain's military service does not automatically qualify him to be commander in chief. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

TITLE: "Dignity"

LENGTH: 30 seconds.

AIRING: Eighteen states -- Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Virginia.

SCRIPT: OBAMA: I'm Barack Obama, and I approve this message.

Announcer: He worked his way through college and Harvard Law, turned down big money offers and helped lift neighborhoods stung by job loss. Fought for workers' rights. He passed a law to move people from welfare to work, slashed the rolls by 80 percent; passed tax cuts for workers, health care for kids. As president, he'll end tax breaks for companies that export jobs, reward those that create jobs in America and never forget the dignity that comes from work.

KEY IMAGES: The announcer talks over black-and-white pictures of a young Barack Obama, a closed factory, houses on a street and Obama working the phone. Then color pictures of Obama working at his desk and interacting with people at campaign events and on the job.

ANALYSIS: The biggest concern Obama faces among voters in his level of experience, and so the first-term U.S. senator stresses his past accomplishments as an Illinois state senator in his second television ad of the general election campaign. The ad says Obama "passed" several initiatives, giving him all the credit, although they are bills the Legislature passed and not the work of a single lawmaker.

Obama was more than one mere vote on the bills cited -- he was one of the leading negotiators who helped turn the legislation into law. He was not the only key player, but many politicians claim responsibility for passing laws that many have worked on.

He was a leader in passing welfare reform, working to get changes in Illinois with the goal of moving people from welfare to work. And in the next eight years, the number of families receiving welfare dropped from 167,124 to 36,331.

But to suggest Obama personally "slashed the rolls by 80 percent" is a stretch; federal law signed by President Clinton required the state come up with a plan to trim the welfare rolls. Obama said he would have opposed Clinton's initiative.

Obama also was a key player in passing a state version of the federal Earned Income Tax Credit, which let low-income families keep more of the money they earned. Proponents who worked with him at the time said he was deeply involved in finding allies, figuring out how to pay for it and drafting the bill.

In the case of children's health insurance, Obama helped expand a program begun by others in 1998 that offered insurance to children in families making up to 185 percent of the federal poverty level. Five years later, Obama helped raise the income threshold to 200 percent of the poverty level and make the temporary program permanent.

It is true that Obama worked his way through college and Harvard law. After getting his undergraduate degree and doing about a year of work at the Business International Corp. in New York, he took a low-paying job as a community organizer in Chicago. After getting his law degree, he ran a voter-registration campaign in Chicago before joining a law firm and then running for office.

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Analysis by Associated Press writers Nedra Pickler and Christopher Wills.