Obama Hits Romney as ‘Outsourcer in Chief’

The Obama campaign is airing a new ad this morning in Virginia, hitting Mitt Romney as an “Outsourcer in Chief.”

The ad was turned around after the Washington Post reported this week that Romney’s former private-equity company, Bain Capital, “invested in companies that moved jobs overseas.”

"President Romney's first 100 Days...creating thousands of jobs for Virginians,” an announcer says in the ad. “But would he? The Washington Post has just revealed that Romney's companies were pioneers in shipping U.S. jobs overseas. Investing in firms that 'specialized in relocating jobs done by American workers to new facilities in low-wage countries like China and India.' Does Virginia really want an Outsourcer-In-Chief in the White House?”

A version of the ad also begins running today in Ohio and Iowa, industrial Midwest swing states key to the president’s re-election chances and where the Obama campaign believes the message on outsourcing has particular resonance.

Despite criticism from some in his own party -- who could stand to benefit from private-equity money -- for attacks on Romney’s time at Bain, the president kept up the line of attack in New Hampshire yesterday. He mocked the Romney campaign drawing a line between “outsourcing” and “offshoring.”

"Yesterday his advisers were asked about this, and they tried to clear this up by telling us there's actually a difference between outsourcing and offshoring. That's what they said. You cannot make this stuff up,” the president joked to a booing crowd.

He continued, “What Governor Romney and his advisers don't seem to understand is this, if you're a worker whose job went overseas, you don't need somebody trying to explain to you the difference between outsourcing and offshoring.”