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On the day Barack Obama is set to give what his campaign bills as a major foreign policy speech – and just a few days before his international tour – the presumptive Democratic nominee's campaign has released a new television ad, "America’s Leadership."

The 30-second spot will air in Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Virginia.

The spot paints Obama as a pragmatist willing to work across the aisle to eliminate the most pressing national security threats. It spotlights his work with Republican Senator Richard Lugar "to help lock down loose nuclear weapons."

"We are a beacon of light around the world," Obama is shown saying at a town hall as the spot opens. "At least that’s what we can be again. That’s what we should be again."

Then Obama speaks directly into the camera: "The single most important national security threat that we face," he says, "is nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists."

A black-and-white photograph of weapons appears onscreen, followed by a shot of Obama and Lugar.

"What I did was reach out to Senator Dick Lugar, a Republican, to help lock down loose nuclear weapons," Obama says. "We have to lead the entire world to reduce that threat."

The ad concludes with Obama at the Town Hall meeting.

"We can restore America’s leadership in the world," he says.

Watch it:

So far, President Bush has demurred when asked about the race for the Republican nomination, saying it's not his job to be "pundit in chief." And it turns out that principle applies even when one of the GOP hopefuls – in this case, Mike Huckabee – is criticizing Bush's foreign policy.

Huckabee, in a much-discussed article in the upcoming issue of Foreign Affairs magazine, accused the Bush administration of possessing an "arrogant bunker mentality" in dealing with the rest of the world that "has been counterproductive at home and abroad."

Those words would likely draw strong criticism had they been written by a Democrat. But White House press secretary Dana Perino declined to comment on Huckabee today, CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller reports. “We’re gonna stay out of the primary politics and when there’s a nominee – the president will vigorously support that nominee," Perino said. “I will refer you to the Republican National Committee which during the primary season can answer those questions. As much as I may want to, I’m not going to do it from the podium."

Perino's words conjure the interesting, and possibly awkward image, of Bush campaigning with the man who assailed his foreign policy. That assumes, of course, that Huckabee will want the unpopular president anywhere near him.

CBS News' Joy Lin reports:

In a foreign policy speech last week, Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee launched into his main point of disagreement with the Bush administration’s handling of Middle East politics after Sept. 11. "This administration’s bunker mentality has been counter-productive both at home and abroad," said Huckabee. "They have done as poor a job of communicating and consulting with other countries as they have with the American people."

Huckabee elaborated on those comments in an interview yesterday with CBS News.

"The greatest challenge we face in this country is understanding the war that we are in from the perspective of the enemy, not from our own Westernized perspective, and that gives me great concern because I think a lot of Americans want to Westernize the mindset of Islamic jihadists," said Huckabee. The former Arkansas governor and ordained Baptist minister told CBS News that the war is with an enemy that is "theological in his nature" and "unlike wars that we’ve ever fought."

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Click here to listen to the interview.

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In his speech last week, Huckabee reiterated his support for General Petraeus and the surge in Iraq. But he argued that the Bush Administration failed to utilize all its diplomatic tools in combating the threat of Islamic extremism and made poor strategic decisions based on faulty intelligence. Huckabee also said the current administration had failed to engage in a discussion with the American public about the nature of the enemy. He differentiated between Al Qaeda, which he said must be destroyed "as a movement" because its leaders would never engage in rational dialogue, and Iran, which Huckabee believes can be "contained as a nation."

"We have to realize that there is something driving the views that are being built upon by Al Qaeda," Huckabee told CBS News. "And it really goes back to the teachings of Sayyid Qutb and if we don’t understand how he helped to shape this concept of taking the entire Islam faith back to a 7th century mindset, and what that would mean in terms of domination and really control of the world, we won’t understand just how ferverently committed the members of Al Qaeda really are."

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