Obama’s first TV ad to air in 18 states

Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign released its first general-election television ad Thursday, highlighting the Illinois Democrat’s “heartland” upbringing in a single-parent home.

{mosads}The ad, titled “Country I Love,” is reintroducing Obama to the general-election audience as working-class and patriotic. The Democratic candidate has been labeled an “elitist” throughout the primary campaign season.

“I was raised by a single mom and my grandparents. We didn’t have much money, but they taught me values straight from the Kansas heartland where they grew up,” Obama says in the ad. “Accountability and self-reliance. Love of country."

The ad will run in 18 states, covering much of the Mountain West and Midwest, as well as in North Carolina, Alaska, Georgia and Virginia. It can also be seen in traditional battleground states, such as New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Florida.

In a statement accompanying the ad, the Obama campaign said it “speaks to voters about the core values this nation was founded on and how they have guided him to work hard for his education, to bypass jobs on Wall Street to work as a community organizer, and to lead the fight for America’s families and veterans as an Illinois and United States senator.”