Christine O'Donnell Addresses 'Witch' Ad

Nearly a year after she won a stunning primary victory in a US Senate race and drew nationwide attention for her controversial statements, Christine O'Donnell is back on the scene, by way of a new book. In Troublemaker: Let's Do What It Takes to Make America Great Again, O'Donnell chastises adversaries for undermining her campaign, while admitting errors in her own decision-making. The Delaware Republican addresses what she calls "my lowest moment of the 2010 campaign"—the commercial in which she assured voters, "I am not a witch."

She says she never wanted to make the ad—which was prompted by questions about a statement from a 1999 late-night talk show that she had "dabbled" in witchcraft as a teenager—and was surprised when it showed up on the Internet. She blames an insistent media consultant, but also her own inability to put her foot down. "It was a wrong-headed move, made for all the wrong reasons, but it was mine," she writes. While O'Donnell claims the witch ad was leaked before she had seen or approved it, emails obtained by the AP yesterday show that the campaign had approved the ad and planned to post it on YouTube the same morning it was to begin airing on television. The book is scheduled to go on sale on Tuesday. (More Christine O'Donnell stories.)