WASHINGTON — In his most controversial television ad yet, Republican John McCain calls for more domestic oil drilling.

“We went to the moon, not because it was easy, but because it was hard,” the ad’s narrator says. “John McCain will call America to our next national purpose — energy security.”

Domestic drilling is not a popular option in states like Florida and California that have oil reserves offshore. McCain also promises to work for lower gas prices and alternative energy sources, tapping into an issue that’s uppermost in voters’ minds.

Democrats said the ad misrepresents McCain’s track record, and dug up several Senate votes where he opposed spending on renewable energy research.

“In his 25 years in Washington, Senator McCain has been a part of the problem, not the solution on energy independence,” said Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Karen Finney.

WASHINGTON — Barack Obama touts hard work and “heartland values” in his first TV ad of the general election, which will air in several Republican-leaning states.

“America is a country of strong families and strong values. My life’s been blessed by both,” the Democratic says in this one-minute spot, which emphasizes his humble roots.

Like Republican rival John McCain ’s first national ad, it’s a soft-focus introduction for voters who may not be familiar with his background.

It will air in 18 states, including many that haven’t voted Republican in recent presidential elections — Alaska, Indiana, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota and Virginia.

WASHINGTON — Republican candidate John McCain touts his independence from President George W. Bush and his plan to fight global warming in a new TV ad.

Two liberal groups, meanwhile, are slamming McCain’s support for the Iraq war in an ad of their own.

McCain’s ad, highlighting an issue important to many independent voters, will run on local TV in 11 battleground states, as well as national cable channels like Fox News and CNN. An aide said the ad buy would be “substantial,” but declined to provide a figure.

“John McCain stood up to the president and sounded the alarm on global warming,” the ad’s narrator says.

It’s the second national TV ad for McCain.

Some of those same viewers might see this ad by MoveOn.org and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. An actress portraying a mother holds up her child and asks McCain: “When you said you would stay in Iraq for 100 years, were you counting on Alex? Because if you were, you can’t have him.”

The two groups say they plan to spend $540,000 to air the ad in three battleground states — Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin — and nationally on cable.

What about Obama? His campaign isn’t buying any national TV ads yet, though they were sitting on a much larger pile of cash at the end of April ($47 million vs. McCain’s $22 million, according to the latest FEC filings).

Fox News Channel has raised the ire of Barack Obama supporters again, this time for referring to the Democratic candidate’s wife Michelle as his “baby mama.”

Fox ran a graphic reading “Outraged liberals: Stop picking on Obama’s baby mama!” during a June 11 segment about planned Republican attacks on the candidate’s outspoken spouse.

According to the Urban Dictionary, “baby mama” is slang for the unmarried mother of a man’s children.

Fox has had other Obama-related gaffes in recent weeks.

Anchor E.D. Hill apologized for referring to Obama’s fist bump with wife Michelle during a rally as a “terrorist fist jab,” while commentator Liz Trotta apologized for joking about an Obama assassination.

WASHINGTON - Look out Obama Girl, the McCain Girls have returned with another off-key tribute to their favorite candidate and his quest to reach “that hard warm place of mystery,” the White House.

Michelle Obama has a new defender from those who say she isn’t patriotic enough — First Lady Laura Bush. In an interview with ABC News, Bush said that Obama’s February remark that she was proud of the United States “for the first time in my adult life” was misconstrued.

“I think she probably meant ‘I’m more proud.’ That’s what she really meant,” Bush said from Afghanistan.

“You have to be really careful in what you say because everything you say is looked at and in many cases misconstrued,” she said.

Some commentators have said the remarks show that Obama, wife of likely Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama, does not love her country.

Bush also praised her White House predecessor, Hillary Clinton, who formally ended her bid to be the first female president on Saturday.

“Well of course, I want the woman president to be a Republican woman,” Bush said, when asked whether she was sorry to see Clinton’s campaign end.

“But I will say I watched the campaign and I admired Hillary’s grit and strength,” she said.

“I have to say I had a lot of admiration for her endurance,” she added.

Bush, who has endured five political campaigns with her husband dating back to the 1970s, said she would not run for office herself.

 Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

Photo credit: Top: Reuters/Jason Reed (Barack and Michelle Obama board plane in Chicago recently); Bottom: Reuters/Larry Downing (Laura Bush visits Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan)

Fiery sermons didn’t drive Barack Obama away from his church, but they did unnerve one other prominent parishioner — media mogul Oprah Winfrey.

According to Newsweek, Winfrey stopped attending Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ in the 1990s in part because she wanted to distance herself from the incendiary views of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

“She’s always been aware that her audience is very mainstream, and doing anything to offend them just wouldn’t be smart,” one anymous source tells the magazine. “She’s been around black churches all her life, so Rev. Wright’s anger-filled message didn’t surprise her. But it just wasn’t what she was looking for in a church.”

Wright, of course, is the preacher whose racially charged denunciations of the U.S. government have caused such heartburn for Obama’s bid for the Democratic nomination since they were made public in March. Evidently Winfrey, an Obama supporter, wanted to avoid a conflict of her own.

But Oprah had other reasons for leaving as well, another anonymous source tells Newsweek.

“There is the Church of Oprah now,” the longtime friend says. “She has her own following.”

Photo: REUTERS/Danny Moloshok (Winfrey campaigns for Obama in Los Angeles, April 2)

SOUTH BEND, INDIANA - Sports are a natural metaphor for political campaigns — both have winners and losers, competing teams, and a final score.

In basketball-mad Indiana, Democrat Hillary Clinton held a rally on Indiana University’s basketball court in Bloomington on Friday, while rival Barack Obama played a three-on-three game with supporters later that night.

On Saturday, Clinton headed to South Bend, best known as home to Notre Dame’s Fighting Irish football team. Former president Ronald Reagan, a Republican, laid claim to that franchise long ago, thanks to his portrayal of Irish football player George “the Gipper” Gipp in the 1940 film “Knute Rockne: All American.”

Clinton opted to hold a rally at the city’s minor-league baseball park, where she received a jersey of the home Silver Hawks, a Single A affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

“We know you’re going to knock it out of the park,” former Gov. Joe Kernan told Clinton in his opening remarks.

When Clinton came to bat, here’s what she said:

“We’re going to hit some of those balls out this stadium and out of our country stadium because we’re going to go to bat and fix America together.”

“We are going to go fight for America, we’re going to round the bases, we’re going to score a lot of runs and we’re going to feel really good about the home team, the American team, the team we’re all a part of,” she continued.

A rocky first inning. But Clinton handled the next eight innings of her stump speech smoothly, promising to spur economic development, end the Iraq war and implement a universal health care system, and challenging Obama to an unmoderated debate.

So how should the New York senator’s box score read? 4 for 5 with one strikeout? Or should that be marked an error?

Unfortunately, the final score in this game won’t be known until May 6, when Hoosiers head to the polls.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.  

Photo: Frank Polich - Hillary Clinton campaigns in South Bend, Indiana.

Journalists and staffers “bowl” tennis balls down the aisle of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign plane as it takes off from Gary, Indiana, on Friday night.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton stopped in a sports bar in Gary, Indiana, on Friday, but these two customers who shook her hand said that wasn’t necessarily enough to win their votes.