US voters on battle of the airwaves

Presidential candidate Barack Obama has reached out to US voters in a half-hour, prime-time TV advertisement.

Mr Obama can afford to buy the airtime due to his fundraising advantage. John McCain is limited in the amount of money he can spend because he opted to accept federal funds.

Here Republican and Democratic voters share their views on the commercial and the Democrats' advertising advantage.

"Obama's ability to control his message has been a real problem for McCain" Jason Rodriguez | Dallas, Texas | Republican

"I thought the broadcast was brilliant. It was heartfelt, even emotional" Mary O'Neil | Denver, Colorado | Democrat

"Obama cynically breached his promise to accept public funding in this campaign" Geoffrey Nolan | Miami, Florida | Republican

"Barack Obama's half-hour spot was very impressive, but I have some small problems with it" Michael Kundak-Cowall | Chelsea, Michigan | Democrat

"The commercial could give Senator McCain a jump in the polls as everyone loves the underdog" Philip Craig Leiter | Minneapolis, Minnesota | Republican

"The video was so slick it could have been orchestrated by Republican tactician Karl Rove" Catherine Anne Smith | Decatur, Georgia | Democrat

"Obama's half-hour advertisement has lessened my opinion of him
" Samantha Cramer | Manassas, Virginia | Republican

"The commercial was a contrived attempt to manipulate voters' emotions. It didn't work on me
" Tom Taber | San Mateo, California | Democrat

MORE VOTERS PANELS

Reaction to final presidential debate

Reaction to second presidential debate

Reaction to vice presidential debate

Reaction to first debate

Video reaction to the final debate

The readers' panel has been selected from as wide a cross-section of people as possible and may not be representative of wider US public opinion.

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