Obama's first general election TV ad starts in Colorado

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's campaign launched its first general election TV ad in 18 states Thursday, including Colorado.

The ad, entitled "Country I Love," features Obama introducing himself to voters and addresses questions made in recent months about his patriotism and values.

"I was raised by a single mom and my grandparents," Obama says in the ad. "We didn’t have much money, but they taught me values straight from the Kansas heartland where they grew up. Accountability and self-reliance. Love of country."

But Colorado Republican Party Chair Dick Wadhams said in an e-mail that, "The ad certainly is at odds with a guy who can't decide whether to embrace or run from his inflammatory, anti-American pastor or his slum lord political benefactor."

Besides Colorado, the ad is airing in 17 other possible swing states, including Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Virginia.

The full script of the ad:

I’m Barack Obama.

America is a country of strong families and strong values. My life’s been blessed by both.

I was raised by a single mom and my grandparents. We didn’t have much money, but they taught me values straight from the Kansas heartland where they grew up. Accountability and self-reliance. Love of country. Working hard without making excuses. Treating your neighbor as you’d like to be treated.

It’s what guided me as I worked my way up – taking jobs and loans to make it through college.

It’s what led me to pass up Wall Street jobs and go to Chicago instead, helping neighborhoods devastated when steel plants closed.

That’s why I passed laws moving people from welfare to work, cut taxes for working families and extended health care for wounded troops who’d been neglected.

I approved this message because I’ll never forget those values, and if I have the honor of taking the oath of office as President, it will be with a deep and abiding faith in the country I love.