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HANOVERTON, Ohio — John McCain bused through Ohio in search of votes Friday while Barack Obama broadened his quest to win Republican states by buying TV ads in McCain's Arizona for the first time and returning to the airwaves in Georgia and North Dakota.

Obama tapped his vast campaign war chest to venture into the three traditionally "red" states because recent polls have found him competitive in each.

Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe, indicated in a conference call Friday that he thinks a victory in Georgia, with the help of black and young voters, is more likely than a win in Arizona because of McCain's support in his home state.

But he said support from Hispanics and some suburban voters in Arizona, which has a Democratic governor, could make the election close there.

"It's enough in the realm of possibility that we want to put a little extra effort in the end," Plouffe said. "We're just going to give it a go in the last three or four days and see how close we can get it."

Obama's campaign is willing to venture onto McCain's turf, but it intends to tread lightly. Officials said the Arizona ad would be positive, a calculation to avoid a backlash from voters sympathetic to McCain. The Georgia and North Dakota ads, however, will be critical of McCain.

Obama won't campaign in the three states in the final days leading to Election Day on Tuesday, appearing instead in Ohio, Florida and other battleground states.

McCain campaign officials, on a conference call Friday, called the Obama television buy a waste of money.

"We encourage them to spend their campaign cash as much as they can," McCain political director Mike DuHaime said. "Those aren't very expensive states, so (it) won't add a whole lot to their buy."

With national polls showing him behind by anywhere from 3 percentage points (Fox News) to 11 points (CBS News/New York Times), McCain's campaign offered an upbeat assessment of his performance and chances.

Campaign manager Rick Davis said McCain was poised for "probably one of the greatest comebacks that you've seen since John McCain won the primary."

"One thing that's clear is that we've established some momentum and we've made gains in virtually every battleground state. We think we've shaken off the effects of the financial collapse that suppressed our numbers prior to the last debate."

Davis said McCain had gained enough ground that he was forcing Obama to revisit states such as Iowa that were thought to be securely in his camp. Obama returned Thursday to Iowa, the site of his first win in January, which catapulted him past Hillary Clinton.

While Obama has spent more — a record-breaking $100 million in October nationally — the Republican National Committee has joined forces with McCain in Florida to unleash a payload of ads that has many trying to ignore them. Most of the ads are decidedly negative and ominous.

"Can you hand your nation to a man who has never been in charge of anything?" an RNC ad asks. The McCain ads end in the refrain that invariably includes the words "higher taxes," "risky" and "not ready." A new Obama ad, with McCain talking about a running mate who will lend him expertise in the economy, ends derisively with a winking Sarah Palin.

The ads have definitely reached saturation, and some might think it's a waste of money, said John Sutherland, a University of Florida advertising professor. But the ads are for two groups — that small group of still-on-the-fence undecided and the envelope-licking, door-knocking believers, he said.

The Wisconsin Advertising Project found that in the past week, 63 percent of Obama ads and 79 percent of McCain ads have been negative nationally. Of the RNC ads, all are deemed negative.