Obama Camp Unveils "Low Road Express" Web Site

The Obama campaign has unveiled a new Web site, "The Low Road Express."

The campaign emailed a preview of the site to reporters this afternoon. It says: "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."

The site features media reports criticizing McCain's ads and video of reporters discussing the tone of McCain's campaign. It also includes the Obama campaign's recent response ad, and prominently features a quote from the St. Petersburg Times: "The straight talk express has taken a nasty turn into the gutter."

In an afternoon conference call, the campaign said the site would be regularly updated in the coming weeks.

"People expected better from John McCain," Obama Campaign Manager David Plouffe said. He added: "We hit another low note every day from this campaign."

Plouffe singled out the McCain campaign's "Celeb" ad for criticism.

"He's not just embracing the Rove playbook that people really are tired of, but he's taken it to an even further extreme," Plouffe said.

He added that the recent negative tenor of the McCain campaign is "something that's going to harm his campaign in the long run," suggesting that McCain is "in great risk of raising his unfavorable ratings."

"Maybe the McCain campaign has decided they can't win the election based on the direction they are offering the country substantively," he said, offering that as an explanation for why the McCain campaign has taken the "low road."

Susan Eisenhower, a self-described "lifelong Republican" and granddaughter of the former president, was also on the call. She suggested that McCain might be "under pressure to take steps like this," because the tenor of the McCain campaign does not match the man she knows.

"Few would doubt the fact that we've got multiple crises unfolding," she said. "...and I don't think these kinds of comments and innuendos have any place in a presidential campaign of this importance."

Eisenhower also referred to the recent efforts by the McCain campaign as "swift-boating" – a reference to the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth ads that attacked Democratic nominee John Kerry's credibility in 2004.