McCain desperate, Democrats say

The national Democratic Party is also coming to Barack Obama's defense as he faces a series of negative TV ads from Republican rival John McCain.

The Democratic National Committee released a web video this morning that calls McCain's attacks "desperate."

It shows McCain pledging at a town hall meeting in April: "We need to have change in America. We need to do things differently. I want to prove to you that I will wage a respectful campaign.

Then, it shows Senator Chuck Hagel, a Republican who accompanied Obama on a tour of Afghanistan and Iraq, on a Sunday news show criticizing McCain's ad that bashed Obama for not visiting wounded soldiers in Germany. "Yeah, I think John is treading on some very thin ground here when he impugns motives and when we start to get into 'you're less patriotic than me, I'm more patriotic,' " Hagel said.

Finally, it shows a series of unflattering newspaper headlines about McCain's line of attack.

"Like so many other promises cast aside in his pursuit of the White House, John McCain's promise to run a respectful campaign didn't even make to his convention," said DNC spokeswoman Karen Finney. "We all respect John McCain's service to our country, but he has clearly become an honorable man running a deeply dishonorable campaign. The American people deserve better, and John McCain knows it."

Blair Latoff, a Republican National Committee spokesman, responded in a statement: "Desperate better defines Obama’s energy plan -- inflated tires."

This afternoon, the Obama campaign launched a new website that is to document and fact-check McCain's attacks. It's called McCain's "Low Road Express," a take-off of the Republican's "Straight Talk Express" campaign bus.

"John McCain used to stand for 'straight talk,' the website says. 'Not anymore. These days John McCain doesn’t seem to stand for anything but negative attacks and false charges against Barack Obama. This isn’t the John McCain we used to know."

UPDATE: Tucker Bounds, a McCain spokesman, said in response to Obama's new website, “Barack Obama’s campaign created his global celebrity status -- we are celebrating it and informing voters of his inexperience. If there’s a low road in this campaign, Obama’s campaign paved it when they launched the first negative attack ad in this election.”

Obama, himself, ridiculed the latest McCain ad, which calls him the "biggest celebrity in the world" and mockingly compares him to some other celebrities.

With the magnitude of the problems facing the country and world, "You'd think that we'd be having a serious debate. But so far all we've been hearing about is Paris Hilton and Britney Spears," he told a crowd in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

"I do have to ask my opponent, 'Is that the best you can come up with? Is that really hat this election is about? Is that what is worthy of the American people?' "

But McCain isn't backing away from the ads.

"There are differences, and we are drawing those differences," McCain said yesterday in response to a question at a town hall meeting in Racine, Wisc., about whether he had reneged on a pledge to wage a "respectful" campaign.

"Campaigns are tough, but I'm proud of the campaign that we have run," he said. "I'm proud of the issues we are trying to address with the American people.