Candidate: George W. Bush

Markets: South Carolina, Michigan

Producer: Maverick Media

Time: 30 seconds

Audio: [NARRATOR:] It's disappointing. Friday, John McCain promised to stop running a negative campaign. Then Sunday, he attacked Governor Bush on national television with false charges on campaign finance. [Text from McCain on "Face the Nation":] He thinks it should remain legal, I guess, for a Chinese-owned corporation to give unlimited amounts of money to an American political campaign. [NARRATOR:] Governor Bush supports comprehensive reform that would outlaw foreign, corporate and union money to political parties. Senator McCain? Five times he voted to use your taxes to pay for political campaigns. That's not real reform. Governor Bush will devote the surplus to priorities: a strong military, education, Social Security and tax cuts.

Analysis: Bush's latest negative ad attempts to turn McCain's signature issue, campaign finance reform, against him. McCain's point is that foreign interests can legally donate unregulated "soft money" through their American subsidiaries. Bush's plan leaves a sizable loophole because U.S. corporate executives-even those affiliated with foreign concerns-could still give political parties huge amounts as individuals. While Bush is suddenly touting his opposition to soft money, he never emphasized it McCain won the New Hampshire primary. McCain has voted 11 times against public financing of elections-which conservatives detest-but supported it five times as part of Senate compromises on campaign reform. McCain may be especially vulnerable to commercials like this because he pledged last week to run no attack or response ads.