Today on the presidential campaign trail

By The Associated Press

IN THE HEADLINES

McCain in new hard-hitting ad hammers Obama over Ayers association ... Obama says McCain trying to divide country with angry speeches and TV ads ... Politically charged and tightly held, Palin ethics report to be released in Alaska ... With economy worsening, working-class voters slowly warm to Obama ... McCain's missing the mark with Hispanics in swing states

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McCain raises Ayers in ad

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican John McCain on Friday hammered his Democratic rival Barack Obama over his association with former 1960s radical William Ayers in a new TV ad.

"When convenient, he worked with terrorist Bill Ayers. When discovered, he lied," the ad said.

The commercial is arguably McCain's sharpest yet, and it uses Obama's link to Ayers to assert that Obama has "blind ambition" and "bad judgment."

McCain's campaign said the ad will run nationally.

The Associated Press and other news organizations have reported that Obama and Ayers are not close but that they worked together on two nonprofit organizations from the mid-1990s to 2002. Ayers also hosted a small meet-the-candidate event for Obama in 1995 as he first ran for the state Senate.

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Obama says McCain trying to stoke anger, division

CHILLICOTHE, Ohio (AP) — Democrat Barack Obama on Friday said John McCain is trying to divide the country with angry remarks and TV ads.

"It's not hard to rile up a crowd by stoking anger and division," Obama told Ohio voters.

The Illinois senator said American's aren't looking for someone who can divide the country, but "they are looking for someone who can lead this country."

"Now more than ever it is time to put country ahead of politics," he said. Obama is criticizing McCain's economic plans during his two-day Ohio tour.

He is not directly responding on the stump to the Republican's claim that Obama has associated with a former 1960s terrorist. But Obama has told a radio talk show that he thought the ex-radical William Ayers, now a college professor, was rehabilitated.

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Sensitive Palin ethics report kept secret, for now

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Sworn to secrecy, Alaska lawmakers have begun reviewing a lengthy and politically sensitive investigative report focusing on whether Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin abused her authority as governor.

The first-term Alaska governor has been accused of firing a state commissioner to settle a family dispute. But the report is also expected to touch on whether Palin's husband meddled in state affairs and whether her administration inappropriately accessed employee medical records.

The inquiry, approved by a legislative committee's bipartisan vote, began before Republican presidential nominee John McCain named Palin his running mate. Since then, the case has been dogged by accusations of political influence.

The investigation focuses on her firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan. Monegan says Palin and her husband pressured him to fire Mike Wooten, a state trooper involved in a nasty divorce and custody dispute with the governor's sister. When Monegan resisted, he says, he was fired.

Palin's critics say that shows she used her office to settle family affairs.

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McCain losing ground with working-class whites

KITTANNING, Pa. (AP) — The steel mills and coal mines of western Pennsylvania helped fuel the nation's economic engine. Today, old factory shells and boarded-up storefronts stand as bleak reminders of those once-prosperous times.

But the voters in working-class enclaves such as this still are a sought-after prize in presidential politics, and many are belatedly backing Democratic nominee Barack Obama.

In the Democratic primaries, working-class whites consistently supported Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Later polls showed them overwhelmingly favoring Republican nominee John McCain.

Now, driven by fears that their personal finances could further deteriorate, many see Obama as the better choice — their thinking in some cases driven more by concern about how McCain would handle the economy than any growing admiration for his rival.

"I don't know that there's anything I particularly like about him (Obama), but I dislike McCain, and I dislike the way the country is, and Republicans need to change," said lifelong Republican Ruth Ann Michel, 64, a retiree shopping in a market in Butler on a recent day. She said her vote for Obama would be her first for a Democratic presidential candidate.

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McCain missing the mark with Hispanics

LAS VEGAS (AP) — John McCain — who once risked his career on an immigration reform bill that was embraced by Hispanics — is now struggling to win these same voters, and falling perilously below the level of support that helped lift President Bush to the White House.

McCain won nearly 70 percent of Hispanic voters in his last bid for Senate in border-state Arizona is watching a first-term Illinois senator run away with those voters.

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THE DEMOCRATS

Barack Obama campaigns in the Ohio cities of Chillicothe and Columbus.

Joe Biden talks to voters in Springfield, Mo.

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THE REPUBLICANS

John McCain holds a rally in La Crosse, Wis.

Sarah Palin has no public schedule.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"This election is going to be decided when a husband and wife sit at a kitchen table, or a single parent sits at the kitchen table, looks at their bills and figures out who is most likely to help them with their financial condition." — Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania.

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STAT OF THE DAY:

An AP survey of election officials nationwide found that as of Oct. 1, the number of registered Democrats had grown by nearly 5 percent since 2004 — outpacing overall population growth in the 28 states where information on voter registration by party was available for 2004 and 2008. During the same time, the GOP lost more than 2 percent of its registered voters

Compiled by Ann Sanner.

"Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets. "
Napoleon Bonaparte

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