Obama's first general election TV ad

Obama's campaign has begun airing its first ad of the general election campaign.

It's running in eighteen states including Florida, Michigan, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Alaska, Montana, and North Dakota. Some of those are traditionally solid Republican states, giving some credibility to Obama's claims that he can be competitive outside the usual Democratic strongholds. In Alaska, he is running neck-and-neck with McCain which is particularly surprising given how handily Bush won there in 2000 and 2004.

HERE'S OBAMA'S EXPLANATION for why he's decided to forego public financing of his campaign and rely on the mostly small donors who have been supporting his campaign so far.