Advocacy groups go after Palin

Barack Obama once said he didn't want help from independent advocacy groups. But that's long since changed, and not only are they going after Republican rival John McCain, now they're raking his running mate Sarah Palin.

"The more voters learn about Sarah Palin, the less there is to like," the announcer says in the opening of a Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund TV spot airing in seven swing states that accuses Palin, as Alaska's governor, of promoting "brutal" aerial hunting of wolves.

It shows sometimes graphic footage of such hunting, which uses small planes to get hunters close to the animals. "Do we really want a vice president who champions such savagery?" the announcer asks.

Factcheck.org, an independent fact-checking group, says that while it's true that Palin endorsed the policy, it is limited to less than 10 percent of Alaska. State officials call it "predator control," and use it to control the sizable wolf population and keep them from killing moose and caribou, which hunters rely on for food.

Planned Parenthood Action Fund, meanwhile, plans to begin airing an ad in markets in three swing states that criticizes Palin for a policy while she was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, to require victims or their insurers to reimburse the $500 to $1,200 cost of rape investigation kits and examinations.

"That is something to me that is unthinkable," a woman only identified as "Gretchen" says in the ad.

Politfact, an independent fact-checking organization, says that while Wasilla had such a policy while Palin was the mayor, there's no evidence that she explicitly endorsed it.