Clinton, Obama Release Dueling Ads In Pennsylvania

It's getting nasty in the Keystone State.

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton's campaigns have both released new ads criticizing their opponent that will run in Pennsylvania, where voters go to the polls next Tuesday. (Clinton leads in the polls, but Obama is vastly outspending her on ads in the state.) Clinton's ad references a previous Obama spot in which the Democratic frontrunner says "I don't take money from oil companies."

An announcer then tells the viewer this: "No candidate does. It's been against the law for 100 years. But Barack Obama accepted $200,000 from executives and employees of oil companies."

He continues: "Every gallon of gas takes over three bucks from your pocket. But Obama voted for the Bush-Cheney energy bill that put six billion dollars in the pocket of big oil."

Watch it:



Obama's campaign, meanwhile, is knocking Clinton with a spot decrying her "negative ad attack."

"Across Pennsylvania, families are struggling," says an announcer. "What's Hillary Clinton's answer? The same old politics. Misleading negative ads. The truth? It's Barack Obama who's taken on the oil companies, worked to strip away their tax breaks as they run up record profits, and demanded higher gas mileage standards. And Obama's the only candidate who doesn't take a dime from oil company PACs or lobbyists."

Watch it:



For more on the debate over Obama taking money from oil companies, check out this USA Today story. A snippet:

It's accurate that Obama doesn't take money from oil companies; neither do his opponents, because corporate contributions are illegal. But Obama, like Clinton and John McCain, has accepted donations from oil and gas company employees — $222,309 in Obama's case from donors from Exxon, Shell, Chevron and others, according to campaign-finance data. Two oil company CEOs have pledged to raise at least $50,000 each as part of Obama's fundraising team.

The point, Obama spokesman Bill Burton said later in a statement, was that Obama doesn't accept money from oil industry lobbyists or their political action committees (PACs), while his opponents have no such policy.