In a new campaign ad, John McCain refights the culture wars of the 1960’s, contrasting himself at the time—a handsome, dashing young warrior surviving captivity and torture at the hands of the enemy—with scruffy hippies back home in the U.S.

“It was a time of uncertainty, hope and change. The ‘Summer Of Love.’ ” the ad begins, showing scenes of hippies and protests.

“Half a world away, another kind of love—of country,” showing the young McCain.

The ad, which makes prominent use of the word “hope,” is directed at Barack Obama.

McCain appears to try to link Obama in voters’ minds to 1968’s protests, bell-bottoms, and other legal and illegal tune-ins and turn-ons, contrasting with his own record in battle and as a North Vietnamese prisoner of war.

Obama, however, probably has few memories of that summer. He was six years old at the time.

Before Obama won the nomination, McCain used the same tactic against Hillary Clinton, with an ad about her support for a congressional earmark to help fund a Woodstock museum.

McCain also mentioned the museum in speeches, saying he didn’t go to Woodstock or revel in the 1960s because, “I was tied up at the time.”

Here’s the new ad.

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