RNC launches ad in four states hitting Obama

By Shira Schoenberg, Globe Correspondent

The Republican National Committee this morning launched a new ad in four key states hitting President Obama on his handling of the economy.

Over ominous music, the ad intersperses clips of Obama talking about the measurements he uses to determine economic progress – for example, how many people can find jobs – with figures chronicling high levels of foreclosures, bankruptcies, and unemployment.

It urges voters to “change direction.”

The ad will air on cable and broadcast television in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and New Hampshire, states that voted Democratic in the 2004 and 2008 presidential elections but which the RNC is focusing on as potential battleground states.

The RNC is not releasing the amount of the ad purchase, but committee Political Director Rick Wiley said it will be a “light cable broadcast buy” combined with a digital and new media strategy.

The ad seems to be an attempt to force Obama to defend his record in states that previously were solidly in his camp.

Wiley wrote in a public strategy memo that the RNC believes Obama is weak in those four states, which represent 50 electoral votes, even though Obama won the states by an average of 13 points in 2008.

The memo cited polling showing Obama’s approval rating dropping in Pennsylvania and New Hampshire, and recalled the strong Republican showing in the 2010 midterm elections in all four states.

In a conference call with reporters, Wiley said a Republican presidential nominee had only a single win in those states in the last five election cycles. But due to recent polling and Republican victories in 2010, Wiley said, “We see great opportunities presenting themselves in these four states.”

In New Hampshire, Republicans won both congressional seats and an open Senate seat in 2010. With New Hampshire being the first-in-the-nation primary state, Republican candidates are visiting regularly.

“We’re looking to come to the Granite State, plant a flag there, make sure we win this back from President Obama as we go into 2012,” Wiley said.

The ad release comes as Obama’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee revealed that they raised $86 million combined during the first quarter of the president’s re-election campaign – more than double the amount of all of Obama’s Republican challengers combined (excluding Michele Bachmann, who has not yet released her fundraising figures).

The Democratic National Committee responded by noting the tax cuts that President Obama has implemented and his reforms of Wall Street and the credit card industry. The Democrats pointed out that the economy has added 2.2 million jobs over the last 16 months.

They also criticized Republicans’ unwillingness to consider a compromise on raising the debt ceiling that would include increased revenues.

“No one should be surprised that a Republican Party run by a Chairman who just this week said it would ‘not be the end of the world’ if the nation were to default on its debt for the first time would rather run negative ads than work to find solutions to get our fiscal house in order and create jobs,” said DNC spokesman Brad Woodhouse. “While the President continues to fight to clean up a mess that was years in the making, the Republican Party and its candidates for president are playing politics with our economy and are fighting to protect the very budget-busting tax breaks and loopholes for oil companies, corporate jet owners, the wealthy and Wall Street that got us in to the current mess.”