The Obama campaign released a brand-new TV ad Monday in Virginia hitting Mitt Romney and his economic stewardship in Massachusetts.
The ad not only airs in Virginia, but also in Pennsylvania, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada and Ohio.
“When Mitt Romney was governor, Massachusetts lost 40,000 manufacturing jobs -- a rate twice the national average,” the ad goes. “And fell to forty-seventh in job creation, fourth from the bottom. Instead of hiring workers from his own state, Romney outsourced call center jobs to India. He cut taxes for millionaires like himself while raising them on the middle class.”
The ad concludes, “So now, when Mitt Romney talks about what he’d do as president -- 'I know what it takes to create jobs' -- remember, we’ve heard it all before.”
The Romney camp responds with this statement: "Having abandoned ‘Hope and Change,' the Obama campaign only ‘Hopes To Change The Subject' from an abysmal jobs report. We're happy to compare the 4.7% unemployment rate Mitt Romney achieved in Massachusetts to President Obama’s weak record any day.”
By the way, it was interesting to see Team Romney unveil a new way to slice up the jobs data for Romney’s tenure in Massachusetts. Our question: Why did you wait until now? The 47th in job creation was a staple for the entire primary campaign and yet, no pushback like we saw this weekend.
As the Boston Globe writes, the Romney camp has never disputed the accuracy of the 47th charge.
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Chuck Todd is NBC News' Political Director and host of "The Daily Rundown," which can be seen at 9 a.m. weekdays on MSNBC. Read the national edition of First Read featuring Chuck, Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro on msnbc.com.
