Senator Barack Obama, who along with Senator Clinton and former Senator John Edwards , make up the troika of Democratic frontrunners, began running TV ads in Iowa last night.

Obama’s campaign raked in about $25 million in the first quarter of 2007 and according to several insiders is well positioned to bring in at least that much in the second quarter campaign reporting, which is due at the end of June. Therefore, he certainly has plenty of dough to begin running TV ads as a way to broadly introduce himself to people in “The Hawkeye State”, along with other early contest states such as New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.

While one of Obama’s ads is a one-minute biograph , the second one – about 30 seconds long – illustrates his ability to work across party lines. In fact, one of the featured people in the shorter ad is Jim Durkin, a Republican, who served in the Illinois State Legislature with Obama…oh, by the way, Durkin also is GOP hopeful Senator John McCain’s “national legislative co-chair.”

Did the Obama campaign know this? You bet. Do they know that McCain is falling in the polls faster that a speeding bullet? Y-U-P. Do they think that the McCain supporters of 2000, mostly moderate Republicans and Independents, will begin giving Obama a second look as their choice for president? That’s their strategy.

Now, will it work? Only time, and lots of money – sad to say – will tell.

Howard Salter