Update | 4 p.m.: RACINE, Wis. – Senator John McCain said here Thursday that he was “proud” of his campaign’s commercial likening Senator Barack Obama to celebrities like Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.

Mr. McCain – who has not taken questions from his traveling press in a week – made the remarks after a young woman at a town-hall-style meeting here asked him if he had “flip-flopped” from his earlier pledge to refrain from mudslinging. She asked specifically asked about the new Britney Spears commercial. “I was like, Oh-Kayyyy,’’ she said of the ad, stretching out the word, apparently to indicate skepticism.

“Campaigns are tough, but I’m proud of the campaign we’ve run,’’ said Mr. McCain, whose campaign has broadcast a series of negative ads about Mr. Obama.

“All I can say is we’re proud of that commercial,’’ he said.





The Obama campaign announced today it was setting up a new Web site called McCain’s Low Road Express to debunk ads and statements by the McCain campaign and e-mailed a video of Mr. Obama discussing the ad today during a campaign event in Cedar Rapids. “Given the magnitude of our challenges when it comes to energy and healthcare and jobs and our foreign policy, you’d think that we’d be having a serious debate,” Mr. Obama said during But so far, all we’ve been hearing about is Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. I mean I do — I do have to ask my opponent, is that the best you can come up with? Is that really what this election’s about? Is that what is worthy of the American people? Even the media has pointed out that senator John McCain who started off talking about running an honorable campaign has fallen back into the predictable political attacks the demonstrably false statements.”

Here is the full exchange from the McCain town-hall-style meeting: