McCain ad says America 'Broken'

WASHINGTON, Aug. 5 (UPI) -- The United States is worse off now than when U.S. President George Bush began his second term, Republican presidential candidate John McCain's latest ad says.

The ad, scheduled to run in key states, debuted after ads run by rival Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., included images of McCain, a Republican U.S. senator from Arizona, with Bush to accompany commentary critical of McCain's energy policy, The Hill reported Tuesday.

"Washington's broken. John McCain knows it," the ad, titled "Broken," says. "We're worse off than we were four years ago."

Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton responded "Senator McCain wants Americans to forget that during the Republican primary, he said that Americans were better off than we were eight years ago and that he thinks we've made great progress economically."

The "Broken" ad came on the same day the Democratic National Committee released an ad called "Puppet Masters" with the message that McCain answered to oil companies.