For area voters feeling left out, an ad is near

The advertising portion of the presidential campaign, until now the exclusive domain of a few early-voting states, is about to make an appearance in the Philadelphia area - and in the rest of the country.

Starting today, Republican Rudy Giuliani, who is looking ahead to the quasi-national primary Feb. 5, will start running a commercial nationally on the Fox News Channel. In the ad, the former New York mayor talks about America and its future from the perspective of what he learned on Sept. 11, 2001.

"We think it's really important to get on TV and start talking to the other states, including New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania," Giuliani campaign manager Michael DuHaime said in a telephone interview. "I know all of the attention right now is on Iowa and New Hampshire, but we have a longer-term approach."

Giuliani has campaigned sporadically in Iowa, which votes Thursday, and New Hampshire, which votes Jan. 8, and he trails in the polls in both places. His off-again, on-again approach to the nation's first caucus and primary has been widely second-guessed by political strategists.

"The uncertainty of the early states is potentially good for us," DuHaime said, contemplating the prospect of no one candidate dominating the opening sequence of events. "I think the early states will serve to eliminate candidates but won't end the race."

New Jersey and Delaware are among nearly two dozen states slated to hold primaries or caucuses Feb. 5; both are winner-take-all in delegate allocation. Polls in New Jersey have given Giuliani a big lead there.

- Larry Eichel

DES MOINES, Iowa - Sen. Barack Obama declared yesterday that he is the only candidate who can bring true change in Washington, hoping to persuade Iowa voters to give him the first victory in the Democratic race.

Making his case against Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton without naming her, Obama said: "The real gamble in this election is playing the same Washington game with the same Washington players and expecting a different result."

Clinton has emphasized her Washington experience - as first lady and then as a senator from New York - though she, too, calls herself the candidate of change.

One week before the Jan. 3 caucuses, Obama came to Des Moines, where representatives of the world's media were gathered, to deliver his "closing argument" speech.

It was overshadowed by the news from Pakistan that former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto had been assassinated.

- AP