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John McCain's campaign has released a new 30-second television ad, "Safe," in which the presumptive GOP presidential nominee discusses his and his family's experiences in war.

According to the New York Times, Democrats believe McCain is spending $3 million or more on ads expected to begin running today. McCain is focusing on battleground states: "Democrats monitoring his spending said the commercials would run in Colorado, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada and New Mexico; beginning on Saturday, he bought time in Iowa, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania."

"Only a fool or a fraud talks tough or romantically about war," McCain, looking directly at the camera from in front of a stark black background, says in the spot.

"When I was five years old, my father left for war," he continues. Black-and-white photographs appear onscreen and music swells in the background. "My grandfather came home from war and died the next day. I was shot down over Vietnam and spent five years as a POW. Some of the friends I served with never came home. I hate war. And I know how terrible its costs are. I'm running for President to keep the country I love safe."

Watch it:

After John McCain effectively wrapped up the Republican nomination, he paid a highly public visit to the White House to receive the blessing of his party’s leader for the last four years. Since then, McCain has done everything he can to erase that image of the two standing together in front of the White House.

McCain took a barrage of criticism from conservative radio hosts for supporting the view that climate change is a challenge that needs to be addressed. He’s taken road trips to places that probably haven’t seen a Republican presidential candidate in decades. McCain has gladly accepted Bush’s help raising money, as he did yesterday in Arizona – but behind closed doors.

But no matter how much McCain tries to distance himself from a president with historically low approval ratings though, there’s one issue on which they will forever be linked – the war in Iraq. Despite his early and frequent criticisms of the conduct of the war, McCain has been a staunch advocate of it. McCain says he would win in Iraq and accuses Barack Obama of wanting to “surrender” there.

Enter former White House press secretary Scott McClellan, whose accusations made in a new book about the selling of the war are sure to make life all the more uncomfortable for McCain.

McClellan charges (among other things) that the war in Iraq was sold to Americans through a “political propaganda campaign” that was “all about manipulating sources of public opinion,” according to a copy of the book previewed by the Washington Post. Most strikingly, McClellan concludes about the war: “What I do know is that war should only be waged when necessary, and the Iraq war was not necessary.”

Should Hillary Clinton somehow still win the nomination, such accusations may have less impact since both she and McCain voted to give President Bush the authorization to go to war. But Obama just received new talking points to bolster his argument that it is judgment, not the experience McCain is selling, which is the more important quality for a president. Obama, whose early opposition to the war has helped him get within inches of the Democratic nomination, will certainly hammer this point home.

For McCain, the allegations made by McClellan are nothing but bad news.

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On a conference call this morning, a number of Democratic superdelegates affiliated with the Win Without War Coalition argued that the party must be unified when it comes to opposing the war in Iraq, opposing torture, and backing a "diplomatic surge" in the Middle East.

Tom Andrews, a former Maine Congressman and National Director of Win Without War, argued that the intense media coverage of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton "is obscuring the common ground of Democrats around the country."

Andrews said that the effort is being launched by 16 superdelegates – Obama supporters, Clinton supporters, and the uncommitted – who call for the group's proposals to be incorporated into the Democratic Party platform.

The superdelegates stressed that the differences between the Democratic candidates paled in comparison to those between the two parties.

Democrats must be clear, said Congressman Jim McGovern, that if they win the White House, "we absolutely will bring our troops home."

He added that Democrats "can't be vague or fuzzy" on their position on Iraq. "We will end it, they will not," said McGovern.

"Every candidate needs to know what their base demands of them," said Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey in explaining why the effort had been launched. "We don't want them to waver."

"How do you get to 100 years in Iraq?," asks liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org in a new Web ad targeting John McCain.

Their answer: "Six months at a time."

The spot shows McCain, President Bush, and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld making statements about the war as far back as 2003; McCain is quoted in December 2005, for example, saying "...we will probably see significant progress in the next six months to a year."

As these quotes are shown, the cost of the war – in lives and dollars – is shown at the bottom of the screen, steadily increasing.

The minute long spot winds down with a McCain quote from two days ago in which the Arizona senator is quoted saying "success is within reach."

It closes with this: "The Bush-McCain strategy: Endless war...on the installment plan."

Watch it:



UPDATE: Republican National Committee Spokesman Alex Conant emails a response: “Moveon.org’s strategy of retreat will leave Iraq to the terrorists and ultimately draw the U.S. into a wider and more costly war in the future. As major fact check and media organizations have confirmed, John McCain has never said that he wants the Iraq war to last 100 years – and any suggestion to the contrary is irresponsible. No one opposes war more than John McCain.”