Barack Obama's campaign unveiled its latest attack ad this morning -- a 13-minute "documentary" on John McCain's ties to Charles Keating, the chairman of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Assn. who was charged with fraud, racketeering and conspiracy in the savings-and-loan scandal of the late 1980s.

The ad was rolled out with the same kind of promotional fanfare that you'd expect for the latest indie flick.

Over the weekend, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe introduced a 30-second preview of the film ("Keating Economics: John McCain and the Making of a Financial Crisis") in an e-mail to the campaign's extensive list of supporters. Plouffe urged recipients to forward the e-mail "to everyone you know" and to stay tuned for the premiere of the full spot.

It debuted at noon EDT (9 a.m. PDT) today on a website specifically created for it.

Production-wise, the spot shows what a campaign awash with money can accomplish these days; it's heads and shoulders above the average political ad (as well as being far more ambitious in length).

Clearly, it was in the works for a while -- and comes now as McCain's campaign over the weekend launched a new effort, assaulting Obama for his ties to Bill Ayers, a founder of the notorious Weather Underground radical group almost 40 years ago.

-- Kate Linthicum