By Michael A. Memoli, Tribune Washington Bureau –
WASHINGTON — The Obama campaign’s Bain Capital offensive took a fresh turn Tuesday with a new television ad that directly pits Mitt Romney against President Barack Obama on the issue of jobs.
The new 30-second spot is the first of the series of ads centered on the private equity firm Romney founded to make a direct contrast between the Republican hopeful’s experience and the president’s record. It focuses on a recent Washington Post report that cast Romney and his firm as “pioneers” of outsourcing, or sending American jobs overseas.
“What a president believes matters,” a narrator says at the start of the ad. The former Massachusetts governor, it continues, “supports tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. President Obama believes in insourcing. He fought to save the U.S. auto industry. And favors tax cuts for companies that bring jobs home.”
As photos of the two candidates appear one after the other, the ad concludes: “Outsourcing versus insourcing. It matters.”
The Romney campaign said the spot, which is running in nine key states, relies on claims that fact checkers have disputed. (The Obama campaign has taken issue with how one, FactCheck.org, reached its conclusion.)
“We are happy to put Governor Romney’s record of job creation in the private sector, and as governor, up against President Obama’s any day,” the Republican’s spokesperson Amanda Henneberg said. “Spending millions of dollars on untrue ads won’t change the fact that President Obama’s policies have left more than 23 million Americans struggling for work.”
Regardless, the message is one that voters can expect to see in heavy rotation quickly. The ad tracking firm Smart Media Group reported Tuesday morning that the Obama campaign upped its television ad buy by $18 million starting Tuesday through month’s end, in the states announced by the campaign.
SMG and its partner NBC News also are tracking a shift in the media markets drawing the most attention from the campaigns and outside groups. For the current week, the most saturated areas are Colorado Springs, Orlando, Reno, Tampa, and Grand Junction, Colo. In previous weeks Virginia and Ohio markets had dominated the top five.
Markets in North Carolina, meanwhile, have dropped from the top 10 most saturated areas, SMG found.
