New McCain Ad: "Love"

The McCain campaign today unveiled a new 1-minute television ad, "Love." The spot casts presumptive GOP nominee John McCain as a man who served his country abroad while many of his peers were enmeshed in the upheaval of the 1960s at home.

It also paints McCain as a "maverick" not beholden to his party and takes a veiled shot at rival Barack Obama for his rhetoric about "hope."

The spot opens with shots of hippies enjoying what a deep-voiced announcer casts as the Summer Of Love.

"It was a time of uncertainty, hope and change," the announcer intones, as shots of young people – including a young couple kissing – grace the screen.

Then the background music grows stark, and an airplane is seen.

"Half a world away, another kind of love -- of country," the announcer says. "John McCain: Shot down. Bayoneted. Tortured."

The juxtaposition is reminiscent of McCain's criticism in the primary of Hillary Clinton for supporting a $1 million earmark for a museum to celebrate the Woodstock music festival: McCain quipped at the time, "Now my friends, I wasn't there. I'm sure it was a cultural and pharmaceutical event. I was tied up at the time."

The ad continues with images of the young McCain as a prisoner of war.

"Offered early release, he said, 'No,'" intones the announcer. "He'd sworn an oath."

Then the spot switches gears to focus on McCain's political career.

"Home, he turned to public service," the announcer says. "His philosophy: before party, polls and self ... America. A maverick, John McCain tackled campaign reform, military reform, spending reform. He took on presidents, partisans and popular opinion. He believes our world is dangerous, our economy in shambles."

It closes by suggesting that Obama's uplifting rhetoric won't solve the country's problems: "John McCain doesn't always tell us what we 'hope' to hear. Beautiful words cannot make our lives better. But a man who has always put his country and her people before self, before politics can."

Watch it: