Obama launches $25M swing-state ad blitz
President Obama's reelection campaign has begun a $25 million TV ad campaign in nine swing states, including Pennsylvania. Core argument: Hey, we're doing better. Remember how bad it was before Obama took office?
Obama launches $25M swing-state ad blitz
Thomas Fitzgerald, Inquirer Politics Writer
The Obama campaign Monday announced a $25 million television ad buy in nine battleground states, including Pennsylvania, to air a spot aimed at reminding voters what the president has accomplished despite taking office in deep economic crisis.
“We’re not letting our foot off the pedal,” campaign manager Jim Messina said in a conference call with reporters Monday morning. “We have a very simple choice between going forward and going back.”
Messina and senior adviser David Axelrod said that the spot, called “Go,” is part of broader effort to set administration achievements in the context of Obama’s having inherited the worst recession since the Great Depression and two wars. The ad emphasizes the auto-industry bailout, successfully ending the Iraq war and winding down the war in Afghanistan, and modest growth in jobs, while acknowledging that the economy is “still too hard for too many.”
Axelrod said that the ad contrasts with Republican Mitt Romney’s efforts to blame continuing economic problems on the administration without offering a believable alternative plan for turning things around. Instead, Romney has smothered opponents with negative ads.
“We’re in a different place,” Axelrod said. “We’re fighting through. There are still significant headwinds.” Messina said that Romney acts as if “world history began” when Obama was inaugurated in January 2009.
On the contrary, President Obama does not want to accept responsibility for the failures of his policies, said Amanda Henneberg, spokeswoman for the Romney campaign.
“After a doubling of gas prices, declining incomes, millions of foreclosures, and record levels of unemployment, Americans know they’re not better off than they were four years ago,” Henneberg said. “Mitt Romney’s pro-growth agenda will get America back on track and stop the middle-class squeeze of the Obama economy.”
The Obama spot is also airing in Ohio, Nevada, New Hampshire, Iowa, North Carolina, Florida and Colorado.
Axelrod told reporters that the Obama re-elect is prepared to counter attacks from Romney and added that the campaign would treat ads from independent super PACS supporting the Republican as if they came from the candidate himself. Axelrod mocked the Koch brothers, conservative billionaires who have financed several anti-Obama groups as “contract killers over there in super PAC land who are going to continue to pound away on behalf of Gov. Romney.”
The Obama campaign has also run some negative ads against Romney, including one recently in Ohio, Virginia and Iowa that mentioned his “Swiss bank account” and intimated he got rich by buying and chopping up countries, shipping jobs overseas.
Here is the new Obama “Go” ad:
Comments (54)
"Forward"-- (Because if you look back, you won't like what you see...)— Wiseman6- Genius. — DeltaV
Comment removed.- Um, it was Clinton's liberal fiscal policies that set up the Great Recession. You give Bush too much credit.
- Brought us through the worst attack in the history of the country. Had a great economy until 2006 when the Demos like Frank and Dodd took over Congress and, despite guys like MCCain warning them about the housing risks, by 2008 they took us down...Yeah, that look back is NICE!!!! It's called TRUTH!!! — sarah89
- Forward...right out the front door next January into the moving van.— jimmymack
- Not gonna happen — tynol10
- These people must be smoking crack if they think this guy has accomplished anything other than killing public enemy number one. The economy sucks. We are still fighting a war in a cat litter. Jobs are scarce. He has caused more division than any other President in my lifetime.— Ronald Reagen
- Inaccurate. Watch the ad. It's totally true. — tynol10
- Obama and the Democrats saved us from a second great depression. And you right wingers may freak out at the budget deficit, but it is actually financing the continued expansion of the economy. George Bush could have paid down the national debt, but instead, he decided to blow the money on tax cuts that mostly benefitted rich folks. — Bobby257
- Did you write this with a straight face? You're a believer that growing our debt up is doing to help? How did that work for Japan, Greece, Italy, France, and some others I forget? Who the heck can afford to bail the US out? If China decides to call our debts, where exactly are we going to get the money?
And what expansion of the economy? It's grown, when you include the cost of living and inflation, and a negative number over the last 4 years. But hey, buy your happy flag and wave it around until you have to replace with a Chinese one once they buy our entire government.— verve - That's a lot of money, putting him in the 1% category.— Louie DePalma
- No no no. He's a man of the people. He's only rich so he can serve us. He's not really rich, he's like, fake rich or something. — verve
- Republicans don't like the Forward word one bit.
Fer Chissakes - it opens books! How much more subversive could it be?— Poit - Is anyone really any better off than they were 3 years ago? If so, please speak up. No pushing now. In all honesty, I am much worse off than I was 3 years ago and don't see things getting any better with this clown in charge. He couldn't even organize a dog fight; only one dog would show up!!— oneway
- It's nice to see the president spending $25MM on himself rather than helping the poor. Oh, other people's money should be used for that.— palmyra21
- palmyra21 It is always easy to spend other people's money. Just as Fumo. Obama has never ever had a "real job" so he cannot relate to the truly working person.— oneway
- I can't believe there's more than 6 months remaining of this BS. Can I just vote now and have the whole thing go away?— hairball
- Seriously- how much fun would SNL have with this slogan, with his record if he were a Republican? The possibilities are endless...— Wiseman6
- Comment removed.
- You don't even realize how your random assemblage of words just assault conscious thought, do you? — verve
- @Poit- For someone as learned and 'forward' as you, one would think you would know the difference between 'forward' and 'foreward'. Look it up and get back to me. Yet another example of the 'elites' without a clue.— Wiseman6
- @tanks- Isn't it at least a little bit embarrassing that the sitting POTUS needs a war chest of 1 billion dollars to make sure everyone knows what a great job he has done so far? Shouldn't such a great job performance make spending such sums an obscene waste of money? Couldn't the PSD school lunch programs use some of this campaign cash?
I guess since its not Barry's money its fine to spend. OPM is always easier to fritter away, right?— Wiseman6 - Comment removed.
- I hope a lot of people who voted for the president vote for more change because I certainly have a lot less change now in my pocket— criminal justice prof
- @tanks- Absolutely no pride and confidence in Barry's supposed 'accomplishments', I see. If Barry can't run on his record I guess the only real choice he has to outspend the Republicans to smoke and mirrors away the last 3 1/2 years.
Also I said look back, not down in reference to your obsession with Bush....— Wiseman6 - Comment removed.
- @ criminal, no one told you to blow the stimulus and tax cut cash that Obama put into your pocket!
@ stone, you got Obama mixed up with Paul Ryan and Bush. If it wasn't for Obama, you would have been pushed over the cliff by Bush. If Paul Ryan gets his way, you and your whole clan will be pushed over the cliff.
As for anyone commenting with the dumb Republican line "are you better off then you were four year ago," you better blame Bush and the Republicans instead of Obama if you believe that you aren't. Your retirement account has recovered almost everything lost under Bush; investors in the stock market have recovered everything lost under Bush and made out like bandits—just ask Romney; Big corporations like GE paid no taxes and the CEOs were still raking in big salaries and bonuses; you don't have to worry about being denied health insurance for a pre-existing condition and your college kid can stay on your lower cost familiy plan longer until they can get their own; your college kid's interest rates on student loans are still at a low rate; we are no longer paying billions in taxes or on credit for the Iraq war; and your real estate taxes didn't go up as much as they would have had the stimulus not been in place.— dross - I can't wait for these ads. I could use a good laugh.— AvoidSundanceVacations
- Desperate men do desperate things. One and done...and not too soon.— dogman5
- @ tanks, it is sad that Obama has to spend that kind of money to remind fools like you of his accomplishments. You see people like you are gullible. The Republicans know that they can buy suckers like you a dime a dozen.
As for Obama's accomplishments:
-Ended the 8 plus years war in Iraq, saving the need to borrow, spend or sacrifice American lives
-Pushed and signed a jobs bill for vets
-Pushed and signed a bill to help small business
-Provided the loans and capital to save the American auto industry and numerous jobs
-Got Osama Bin Laden
-Helped get rid of Qaddafi
-Provided stimulus cash for every working American
-Extended unemployment compensation
-Ensured that the country was not a deadbeat bill payer
-Pushed and signed a bill to ensure women could get equal pay for equal work
-Got rid of a policy use to discriminate in the federal workplace on the taxpayers dime
-Pushed for and enabled student loan rates to remain low
-Provided relief to homeowners facing foreclosure
and the list goes on!
— dross - Anything about him collecting the half a million dollars from Corzine, you know the move forward Democrat Governor/Senator from NJ that stole 1.6 billion dollars from his clients, to cover Corzines reckless bets. So much for Obama denouncing millionaires and billionaires. Wink Wink, it is all good when you are from Chicago…— CrashTestCorzine
- @ crash, the limit to contribute to the Obama campaign is about $2,000. So maybe you ought to check somewhere else, instead of talking like you are ready for the state hospital for the insane.— dross
- Hey Dross just so you know Corzine is a top Bundler for Obama someone that raises over $500,000, so let me put this into terms that somebody with a third grade education level can under stand; this is somebody that raises a lot of money for a candiate. And to your point, that after the fact, your anti Wallstreet President convientently returned $70,000 to Corzine and his wife, a far cry from the lofty $2,000 limit that runs through you’re your miopic little brain: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/04/obama-bundlers-raise-at-least-106-million-for-campaign/
Lean forward you Dope!
— CrashTestCorzine - The only thing Obummer knows how to do is campaign, he does not know how to govern. But then again being a community agitator would not prepare you to be President of the United States. He does what he knows what to agitate, agitate, and agitate some more, play golf, give speeches, blame anyone and everyone for anything that goes wrong and campaign.— Speak-truth-2-power
- The only thing Obummer knows how to do is campaign, he does not know how to govern. But then again being a community agitator would not prepare you to be President of the United States. He does what he knows what to agitate, agitate, and agitate some more, play golf, give speeches, blame anyone and everyone for anything that goes wrong and campaign.— Speak-truth-2-power
- Comment removed.
- @ speak, yeah Obama did all that and still had enough talent to get this country out of the ditch, back on track, and get Obama and out of Iraq. Your favorite peeps Rove, Bush, Cheney, Bachmann, Boehner, Cantor, and Ryan didn't have the talent combined to do what he has done. Now that is what is called speaking truth 2 power!— dross
- Comment removed.
- xyz— FocusTruthFully
- "Hope and change, baby!" (I hope I can get re-elected after completely screwing up America (change).) "Blame Bush! He did bad stuff and it's all his fault, no matter that I had 4 years to fix it, and just made it worse. And Reagan, yeah, he stunk, too!" What a complete fraud.— verve
- "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free."
The Good Book.
(ps - it sure aint Obama)— FocusTruthFully - More like:
HYPE & BLAME 2012— FocusTruthFully - @dross- Well.. uh nevermind. I don't even know where to start with you.— Wiseman6
- Comment removed.
- @ verve, what part was made worse? You need to get your eyeglasses checked.
@ crash, so what about bundling? How else does one fight a pack of liars like Karl Rove, the Koch Brothers and Mitt "vulture captialist" Romney coupled with some lemmings, or fake light in the pocket Republicans like you?
@ wiseman, start with this. Don't blame me that your candidate is an empty suit, serial liar, and loser. Gingrich called Mitt out for what he is a career politician. Where has your man lead? Sucked the life out of companies, lining his pockets, and leaving the employees and localities holding the bag. As a public employee, a record performance of 47 out of 50 states in job creation. Plus, a so called olympic savior whose performance was propped up with tax dollars for infrastructure. Oh my bad, he lead on Romneycare which is the same thing as Obamacare. That is worth a little something! Yeah, Obama can lead. Obama led us out of Iraq and pulled this economy out the ditch that Bush, Cheney, Bachmann, Cantor, Boehner, and McConnell put it in.
@ banned, remember, electoral votes count. Now do that math!
@ focus, Hype and Blame 2012 sounds like Willard Mitt to me!— dross - Comment removed.
- Why did Obama let Omar Hassan al-Bashir off for the genocide in Darfur Sudan? Why didn't he continue to carry out the sanctions he declared before the UN?— FocusTruthFully
- During Obama's term as Senator he reamed out Bush for the high gas prices. Now as president, with gas prices more than doubled Obama claims he has no control over the gas prices.
Why didn't he sign the Keystone XL, which would help ease future demands.— FocusTruthFully - What happened to Obama's promise of televised negotiations on C-SPAN regarding the healthcare reform?— FocusTruthFully
- The 2008 Obama campaign described union contributions to Clinton and John Edwards as "special interest" money. Now he whole heartedly accepts and encourages such support.— FocusTruthFully
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Inquirer staff writer Thomas Fitzgerald blogs about national politics.
You can reach Tom Fitzgerald at 215-854-2718 or tfitzgerald@phillynews.com.
Reach Thomas at tfitzgerald@phillynews.com.
Thomas Fitzgerald
Inquirer Politics Writer
You can reach Tom Fitzgerald at 215-854-2718 or tfitzgerald@phillynews.com.
Reach Thomas at tfitzgerald@phillynews.com.
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