Producer: American Issues Project, a conservative organization that claims not to have any ties with John McCain's campaign

Where to see it: Started yesterday on broadcast television in Ohio. Also on the Internet at http://americanissuesproject.org/

Script: Narrator: "Beyond his speeches, how much do you know about Barack Obama? What does he really believe? Consider this: United 93 never hit the Capitol on 9/11. But the Capitol was bombed 30 years before by an American terrorist group called Weather Underground that declared war on the U.S. -- targeting the Capitol, the Pentagon, police stations and more. One of the group's leaders, William Ayers, admits to the bombings, proudly saying later, 'We didn't do enough.' Some members of the group Ayers founded even went on to kill police. But Barack Obama is friends with Ayers, defending him as 'respectable' and 'mainstream.' Obama's political career was launched in Ayers' home. And the two served together on a left-wing board. Why would Barack Obama be friends with someone who bombed the Capitol and is proud of it? Do you know enough to elect Barack Obama? American Issues Project is responsible for the content of this ad."

Video: The spot opens with four video shots of Barack Obama speaking to crowds followed by the ominous question: "What does he really believe?" A photo of the Capitol steps follows while the words "consider this" are flashed across the screen. The viewer sees a copy of The New York Times from 1971 describing the bombing of the Capitol, two still photos of the damage done, FBI photos of members of the Weathermen, followed by photos of Ayres as he appeared in the 1970s and as he appears today. Then the commercial shows side-by-side photos of Obama and Ayres, another still photo of the damaged Capitol and yet another photo of Ayres before concluding with still another Obama photo with the words: "Do you know enough to elect Barack Obama?"

Analysis: First, the facts: Barack Obama was never a member of the radical group, was 9 years old when the Capitol was bombed in 1971, and in April of this year described the bombing as "detestable." Although Ayres and his wife, Bernadine Dohrn, who also was a member of the Weather Underground, have contributed small amounts of money to Obama's campaigns, they hardly "launched" his political career. That makes this commercial the most negative in what is becoming an increasingly nasty campaign.

Ayres currently is a professor of education at the University of Illinois in Chicago, but in the early 1970s was a key member of the Weather Underground, one of a number of organizations opposed to the Vietnam War. The Weather Underground set off bombs at police stations and the Capitol, and Ayres at the very least knew of these plots. For a number of years, he lived as a fugitive before he and Dohrn went public in 1980. By then, federal charges against him had been dropped. In 2001, he published his memoirs and was quoted in a New York Times article as saying, "I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough." Ayres later insisted his comments were in the context of trying to stop the Vietnam War.

Obama's association with Ayres was raised by ABC's George Stephanopoulos in April at the Democratic presidential debate in Philadelphia. During that debate, Democrat Hillary Clinton criticized Ayres' comments and said he would be "an issue that people will be asking about." But during that debate, Obama criticized "this kind of game, in which anybody who I know, regardless of how flimsy the relationship is ... somehow their ideas could be attributed to me."

Although the commercial is reasonably factual, it attempts to plant a false impression that Obama sympathizes with radical groups such as the Weather Underground.

Finally, the commercial claims not to have any connection with the McCain campaign. That claim is difficult to disprove, but sitting on the board of the American Issues Project is a onetime paid consultant for McCain's Iowa campaign.

-- Jack Torry Columbus Dispatch