RightChange: Obama Attacks Romney in Latest Campaign Ad

A new ad from the Obama campaign goes after Republican nominee Mitt Romney in a new way than previous ads: about his term as Governor of Massachusetts. This is a fresh turn away from attacking his business career, which, as we learned on CNN earlier in the week from spirited Obama supporter and former President Clinton, was nothing less than “sterling.” 

The ad slams Romney’s gubernatorial acts, specifically his economic impact, job creation rate, and tax changes, in ways that, factually, just don’t check out. Watch the ad below:

The statement that Massachusetts had one of the worst economic records in the country under Romney neglects to mention the fact that Romney entered office at a moment when Massachusetts was at dead last, #50, in the US in terms of economic growth. We’re not sure where President Obama got the number 47 for Massachusetts’ rank under Romney, but according to data from ASU based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers, Massachusetts ascended from #50 to #29 during Romney’s tenure as governor. On top of that, the unemployment rate actually decreased steadily in New England while Romney was governor, as did the rate in Massachusetts, resting around 6% his first year and down to 4.5% when his term was complete.

If Obama wants to take on Romney's manufacturing record, he ought to own up to the facts: the manufacturing industry has been “hemorrhaging” jobs for 10 years, teetering up and down since Obama took office. The latest manufacturing report shows the industry is down in May and the economy is weakening. We were told all of this was never supposed to happen under Obama's stimulus plan. If Romney is guilty of anything, it's producing manufacturing jobs at a time where it was nearly impossible to do so.  We’re sure a net increase of jobs and a nearly 2% decrease in the unemployment rate is a record I’m sure Obama would love to have for his own.

And if we really want to talk about unemployment rates and job creation, what we should really be doing is standing up Mitt Romney’s 4.7% next to President Obama’s 8.1% unemployment rate today--nearly double the number that the Obama administration points fingers at in their latest campaign strategy.

In the same vein, the commercial brings up the dept that Romney accumulated while he was in office. At that, we would like to throw a few numbers out there. Since he took office, President Obama has driven us $5,106532,234,287 deeper into debt. That is $$1,885,438,874,024 more than President George W. Bush did in his first term and, get this, more than $200 million more than Bush accumulated between 2001 and 2009, both of his terms as president.

To rebuttal this, President Obama would (and has) made the claim that he inherited the debt we now face, in large part, from the Bush administration, thus acquitting himself of blame. Why, then, is this luxury not afforded to Romney in turn?

When Romney took office as Governor of Massachusetts on January 2nd of 2003, it was not a good time for Massachusetts. From the 1990s leading into the early 2000s, the economy and job markets were struggling. According to reports, the people of MA were working longer hours for lower income, there was much income inequality, and there was an increase in poverty. This is the economy that Mitt Romney had to work with as governor, and he managed to have a successful term and leave the state in a better place than he found it. We’re not so sure if this will be the case for our 44^th president.

Our suggestion for Mr. Obama, since it seems that he falls short of his opponent on almost all of the claims made in his latest ad, would be to choose some different issues to sling mud at.

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