In the candidate’s newest ad, a Republican state senator from his home state touts his “bipartisan way” of doing politics. A Republican U.S. senator from a red state is prominently featured. A moderate Democratic U.S. senator from a red state endorses him impassionedly.

And it’s not Sen. John McCain?

You’re right, it isn’t.

It’s Sen. Barack Obama. The Illinois Democrat, who’s vying for his party’s nomination for the presidency, is charting a new political trajectory in his new ad. The 60-second spot, which began to air this week on CNN and MSNBC, looks outwardly to entice Democrats, independents and, yes, even disenchanted Republicans. It’s a political anomaly to Washington pundits, who are used to the roar of partisan ads at the peak of the political season.

But it’s business as usual for Obama, who, well before he was elected to the U.S. Senate, told the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, “We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the Stars and Stripes.”

The ad begins with a rerun of that statement. Translation: I’m the consensus-builder.

Depending on the timing, ads are an effective instrument of influence. During this primary season, however, Obama isn’t seeking the vote of the “people.” He needs to convince Democrats to nominate him for the nation’s top job. So why is he appealing to a broader base?

There are probably many complicated variables, but his rudimentary strategy is to cast himself as an agent of change-an alien of sorts, who, in contrast with his chief rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton, transcends partisanship and the red and blue divide in America.

In fact, he unequivocally states that in his newest ad, “There is not a liberal America and a conservative America; there is the United States of America.”

It’s no doubt a salient strategy that has some Democrats uneasy – ostensibly for a good reason. The liberal-conservative divide in America isn’t penetrable with some hopeful message, for sure. It’s a settled polarity that, oftentimes, is based on a set of principles and key differences.

But this strategy is fit for the junior senator from Illinois, who’s competing with the former first lady, whose husband is the kingmaker of the Democratic Party – the establishment, so to speak. Obama is the underdog among Democrats, so his bets are better among independents and the branch of Republicans who are disenfranchised by President Bush’s brand of conservatism.

So it’s no surprise that the ad will air 200 times in Minnesota, a purple state with large number of independents. Other Democrats have inquired about the cost of advertising here, but never pulled the trigger. Couple that with the fact that Minnesota and at least half of the Super Tuesday states allow open primaries or caucuses. This means that voters can vote either party.

And while that might be risky during the primary, Obama is banking on independents to turn out for him in record numbers, as they did in Iowa. Those independents catapulted him to the “electability” spectacle and helped him pass an important threshold.

If they continue on that pattern in South Carolina this Saturday and in more than 20 states on Feb. 5, Obama is hoping that he will be aptly tooled to fight in November against Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who’s increasingly emerging as the likely Republican nominee.

Obama vs. McCain

So the ad pre-empts McCain by casting Obama as the more unifying figure in this race. McCain, though, has his own bipartisanship credentials to show off.

He’s also the wild card against Democrats. He poses a serious challenge to Sen. Clinton, whose “likability” factor is in bad shape, and who’s viewed as a more divisive figure than either McCain and Obama. Independents aren’t as fond of Sen. Clinton as they are of McCain and Obama.

Still, McCain fears Obama as an opponent. At 72, he’ll have a tough fight on his hands against the youthful, crowd-inspiring Obama.

Add that to Obama’s “inclusive” mantra, which sits well with independents, who essentially resuscitated McCain’s candidacy from a near-death experience. To the chagrin of hard-core Democrats, Obama talks about Ronald Reagan’s being a “transformative” leader. He recently told a Nevada newspaper that Reagan was able to bend Democrats his way.

Gambling on independents

Obama seemed to address a key question about America’s biggest swing voters: Are they more anti-Bush than pro-unity?

By invoking Reagan and showing Republicans in his first national ad, Obama seems to say that, while I’m a Democrat by virtue of deep convictions, I’ll extend an olive branch to Republicans who were alienated by the Democratic partisan bickering – the status quo folks. 

It’s a carefully choreographed jab at partisanship. It also subliminally suggests that Sen. Clinton resembles the status quo that failed to appeal to the “low-hanging fruit,” which is how Obama characterizes independents and disenfranchised Republicans.

Obama is at the cusp of his presidential bid, and I think he measured the nation’s fever more accurately than his rivals: Voters – especially independents – need not the unattainable “unity,” but they crave a consensus-building leader.

Whether his good strategy is going to yield positive outcomes remains to be seen.