John McCain is buying air time in North Carolina.

The Republican presidential candidate had not previously aired TV ads specifically here, although North Carolinians had seen other ads on national cable shows.

Following earlier attacks on the Democratic candidate as a "celebrity," the ad shows footage of Barack Obama's Berlin speech.

"Take away the crowds, the chants — all that's left are costly words," a female narrator says. "Barack Obama and out-of-touch Congressional leaders have expensive plans, billions in new government spending, years of deficits, no balanced budgets and painful tax increases on working American families."

The ad then shows pictures of Obama and U.S. Sens. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, Harry Reid of Nevada, Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Chuck Schumer of New York.

The choice of "Congressional leaders" is interesting. Dodd is a former Democratic presidential candidate, Reid is the Senate Majority Leader, Leahy an antagonist of Vice President Dick Cheney and Schumer is heading the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Still, these are faces better known to Washington insiders — Dome and his colleagues had to play the ad three times to name them all — and Reid is shown twice. None are running for re-election this year and the ad is not running in any of their states.

In days gone by, Republicans would have linked Obama to Ted Kennedy, though his cancer may have made him too sympathetic to serve that purpose. Still, the absence of Hillary Clinton or Nancy Pelosi is worth pondering.

With North Carolina in play, will John Edwards endorse?

Earlier, state political commentators argued that the former Democratic presidential candidate had waited too long to make an endorsement of either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.

Now it looks like he may have strengthened his hand.

Time's Mark Halperin included Edwards on a list of 13 prominent Democrats who could call for Clinton to drop out of the race and have an effect on the media and other Democrats (if not Clinton).

Edwards was No. 3, right after Al Gore and Jimmy Carter, and above Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.

As a former North Carolina senator, an Edwards endorsement would carry some weight here, though it would be unlikely to be as important as the national media may make it out to be. 

For his part, Edwards has not made any moves that would indicate that he intends to endorse either candidate until the dust settles, though he recently began working with a group attacking Republican John McCain.

U.S. Rep. Brad Miller wants to help people declaring bankruptcy rewrite the terms of their home loans. 

During a meeting of the Northern Raleigh Rotary Club today, the Raleigh Democrat talked about a bill he sponsored that would allow judges to modify the mortgages of homeowners who declare Chapter 13 bankruptcy. Judges can already modify debts related to vacation homes and cars.

"Allowing people to modify their mortgages the same way they modify a mortgage on a vacation home, a mortgage on investment property, a car loan will allow 600,000 families to keep their home," Miller said.

The bill passed the Judiciary Committee but has not been voted on by the House. A similar bill is making its way through the Senate with the support of Democratic majority leader Harry Reid.

"I think Democrats won two years ago because people wanted a Congress that would stand up to special interest groups," Miller said. "This is the kind of fight that the American people want us to fight and not walk away from."

North Carolina House Speaker Joe Hackney will be on Capitol Hill Wednesday lobbying Congress.

Hackney, an Orange County Democrat, is scheduled to lead a delegation of state lawmakers from around the country to meet with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, reports Rob Christensen.

Hackney said he wants to discuss the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, the impact of the drought and other issues.

Hackney is president-elect of the National Conference of State Legislatures.