Strap yourself in, because it’s already apparent the presidential race is going to be as bumpy as speeding down a pitted gravel road.
President Obama’s reelection has unleashed a tough television ad, “Swiss Bank Account,” that rips Republican Mitt Romney for his record as a corporate CEO who “shipped American jobs to places like Mexico and China” and for outsourcing some state call-center jobs to India when he was governor of Massachusetts.
“It’s just what you’d expect from a guy who had a Swiss bank account,” the ad closes.
Smack. Obama strategists have made no secret that they would use Romney’s vast wealth against him in a campaign of class distinctions designed to demonstrate that his (and the GOP’s) policies are hostile to the middle class. This ad isn’t subtle.
The spot is running in Ohio, Virginia and Iowa behind what the Obama campaign calls a “substantial” buy of airtime.
It was framed as a response to recent ads from super PACs allied with Romney and the GOP, funded by petroleum magnates, that have attacked Obama for his clean-energy policies, including allegations (debunked by independent fact checkers) that some government subsidies for development of clean fuels went to companies overseas.
“With the worst job creation record in modern history and the slowest economic recovery since the Great Depression, President Obama is trying to distract Americans from the real issues with a series of sideshows,” said Amanda Henneberg, spokeswoman for the Romney campaign. “Unable to defend his failed record of 23 million Americans struggling for work, wasteful boondoggles like Solyndra, skyrocketing national debt, and unacceptably high energy prices, President Obama has once again resorted to attacking Mitt Romney. The American people have suffered enough over the last three years and deserve better.”