John McCain’s new TV ad:

Republican John McCain assailed Mitt Romney’s conservative credentials on the eve of the Super Tuesday presidential primaries, going on national television with a new campaign ad that claims Romney “was against Ronald Reagan before he was for him.” McCain had eased up on his criticism of the former Massachusetts governor since winning the primary in Florida last week and had begun acting like a general election candidate, focusing his harsh rhetoric on Democratic rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama. But with hours to go before voting began in more than 20 states from coast to coast, McCain unloaded on Romney. The 30-second ad airing on national cable television shows Romney distancing himself from Ronald Reagan, patron saint of modern conservatism, in a 1994 debate when he was challenging Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts. “Look, I was an independent during the time of Reagan-Bush. I’m not trying to return to Reagan-Bush,” Romney says in the ad footage. An announcer then intones, “If we can’t trust Mitt Romney on Ronald Reagan, how can we trust him to lead America?”