Behind the Ad: Obama attacks Romney's Massachusetts record

By Richard K. Barry 

(Another installment in our "Behind the Ad" series.)

Who: The Obama-Biden Campaign. 

Where: Nationally.

What's going on: I suppose this isn't really an ad as much as it's a four minute video attacking Mitt Romney's record as Governor of Massachusetts. It focuses on his inability to translate his business experience into job growth in the state. The piece is called "Broken Promises: Romney's Massachusetts Record."

As Huffington Post writes, it:

features a series of clips connecting the promises Romney made while running for governor in 2002 to the statements he has made during his current presidential bid. It focuses in particular on his touting of his private sector experience during both election cycles.

Clips of Romney's earlier promises are interspersed with on-camera statements from a host of Massachusetts leaders, who recall the governor as difficult to work with and failing to live up to expectations. The present and former lawmakers home in on Romney's failed economic record with respect to job growth, reducing the deficit and cutting taxes.

I'm not quite sure how this thing will be shown or who will see it, but it's interesting in the sense that it tells us how Obama will go after Romney by, in essence, arguing that we have seen this movie before: Mitt Romney claiming that his business experience prepared him to create jobs as governor in Massachusetts,when in fact the jobs never materialized.

It's one thing to make claims in a vacuum, but Mitt Romney has a record too. And as much as Romney thinks he'll have success going after Obama's four years in office, his got his own past to worry about. So far, we haven't heard a lot about that, but we will.

(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)