Members of the media and the media elite loathed the McCain Campaign ad released two days ago. What they’ll think of this latest ad, just released by the McCain Campaign, is not hard to guess. The only question is, how much more will they loathe and condemn this latest ad?

Called “The One,” it highlights many statements from Obama which you might think of as “interesting.” Statements such as, “I have become a symbol of America returning to our best traditions;”whatever that means. It evens features a snippet from Obama’s victory speech, given once he had finally clinched the nomination for his party, where he tells a crowd of screaming supporters that someday they will look back upon this as the day where the “rise of the oceans began to slow and the planet began to heal.”

Following the quote comes a snippet from “The Ten Commandments” starring the late Charleton Heston where Moses parts the Red Sea with the statement, “Behold His mighty hand.” As the Red Sea parts, Obama’s home made presidential seal rises from the waves.

I think it’s safe to say that this new ad makes the previous ad look rather tame. I can’t wait to hear what the media-ocracy has to say about this one.

The loving and focused treatment that Senator Obama receives by the mainstream media is positively shameful. The fact that four news anchors accompanied the Senator on his “world tour,” and newsbreaks throughout the day telling Americans about the latest leg of his trip. CNN even interrupted a show to announce that Senator Obama’s plane had landed safely on the first leg of his trip. Personally, I cannot remember ever seeing a candidate get such four-star treatment.

Meanwhile, McCain has been getting minimal notice in the press. What has been clear, however, is that the media is more than willing to tell us when McCain “disagrees” with Obama. So, when McCain talks about his own vision for the country, he gets no attention. When McCain critiques Obama’s words or actions, he gets attention.

Well, it seems the McCain Campaign has figured this out and rolled out an ad two days ago which threw Senator Obama’s rock-star like status and treatment right back into his face. And it did so very effectively, with nothing in the ad being false or deceptive, but rather giving us a visual view of where this candidate is on the issues.

Of course, the media was livid. And in their anger, they moved this ad up to the top of every media hour, right where you can be sure most Americans who are paying attention could see it.

What has happened since the debate began? If you look at the Gallup daily polling numbers, you find that the first major lead Obama has enjoyed so far in the race, which came on the heels of his world tour, has been erased. For the first time, Senators Obama and McCain are tied at 44% each.

Of course, there is still a great deal of time left in the race and this will change again, but it will be interesting to see if this trend produces any change in strategy from the Obama Campaign. In speeches over the past several days, Obama has been accusing McCain of “inciting fear” in voters over the fact that he does not “look like those others presidents on our currency.” Certainly a less-than-subtle referral to Senator Obama’s race. But other than that, it has been business as usual for Senator Obama.

So is Senator McCain the problem here? I would argue that he is not.

Senator McCain is merely responding in the only way to which the media rewards. The media has consistently rewarded McCain for negativity, therefore he is giving them what they want; what they are willing to respond to.

These media professionals tell you they hate negativity, but, at the same time, they reward it with more attention. So, it is a surprise that we see more from candidates?

The Wall Street Journal’s opinion section has an insightful article on stonewalling by Democratic leaders related to the energy debate. Among other things, they note that “for the first time since the 1950s, Members will skip town today for the August recess without either chamber having passed a single appropriations bill. Then again, Democrats appear ready to sacrifice their whole agenda, even spending, rather than allow new domestic energy production.”

Of course, Pelosi and Reid both know that if the issue goes to the floor for a vote they would lose and oil companies would gain access to oil-rich areas in and around the US they’ve been so long seeking. Reid and Pelosi have tried to place blame everywhere but where it belongs, on their leadership. In this case, I guess we would call it their lack of leadership. Pelosi and Reid favor a lawsuit against OPEC, but they refuse to allow American companies to tap our own resources in order to become less dependent on OPEC.

Perhaps the greatest irony coming from the mouths of these so-called Democratic “leaders” is this: Pelosi and Reid insist that oil companies don’t want to drill because they want oil prices to remain high while, at the same time, they refuse to allow oil companies to drill for more oil.

Someone please explain this to me.

Ultimately, we know for sure that we have enough natural resources of our own to completely replace the oil we currently import from the Middle East. I think most people would agree that having the ability to declare our independence from Saudi oil would be a great thing.

Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid don’t seem to agree.