SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden says Republican candidate John McCain is trying to distract voters from the nation's financial problems.

McCain's campaign launched a TV ad Friday that questions Barack Obama's ties to anti-Vietnam War radical William Ayers. Ayers helped found the Weather Underground, which took credit for bombing government buildings in the early 1970s.

Ayers hosted a small meet-the-candidate event for Obama in 1995, when he first ran for the state Senate.

Biden never specifically mentioned Ayers during a speech Friday in Springfield, Mo. But the Delaware senator accused the McCain of ignoring a financial crisis to launch what he called “baseless” accusations against Obama.