Democrats: McCain reneging on pledge to run clean campaign

Trying to turn the tables on John McCain, who has unleashed a barrage of attacks on his Democratic rival -- asking "Who is Barack Obama?" -- Democrats today unveiled a web video suggesting that McCain is contradicting his own pledge to run a campaign of ideas, not assaults

"Who is John McCain?" the announcer asks.

The video then shows McCain, during his ill-fated 2000 presidential campaign, repeatedly pledging to refrain from attacks.

"But I'm going to keep fighting clean, I'm gonna keep fighting fair, and I'm gonna keep fighting the battle of ideas," he is shown saying in South Carolina.

"I want the Presidency in the best way, not on the worst way," he adds.

The video juxtaposes those pledges with headlines about McCain taking the low road.

The Democratic National Committee promoted the video as coming when "McCain is working overtime launching a barrage of negative attack ads aimed at 'turning the page' from the economic crisis facing working families because - as one McCain advisor said, 'If we keep talking about the economic crisis, we're going to lose.' In fact, nearly 100 percent of John McCain's ads attack and distort Barack Obama's record."