Mitt Romney is No. 1, but not in the category he probably wants.
In yet another television ad that hits the Republican on his record as governor, the Obama campaign says Massachusetts, with an $18 billion state debt, was first in per person debt on Romney's watch.
The ad concludes with the now-familiar line, “It didn't work then. It won’t work now.”
The campaign is also continuing to highlight that Massachusetts was 47th in job creation while Romney was governor.
In response, the Romney campaign called the ad a "distortion" and a "distraction," saying the Obama team has "nothing positive to say" for the president's record.
“President Obama has overseen trillion-dollar deficits, soaring national debt and the first credit downgrade in history," Romney Spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in a statement. "Mitt Romney, on the other hand, closed a $3 billion budget shortfall, balanced four budgets, left a $2 billion rainy day fund and received a credit rating upgrade. President Obama will do anything to distract from his abysmal economic record and – despite that record – the fact that he thinks the private sector is ‘doing fine.' Mitt Romney knows our country can do better and, under his leadership, it will do better.”
Stephanie Cutter, Obama's deputy campaign manager, said on Tuesday that negative advertisements are going to be necessary in this campaign.
"Elections are about choices," Cutter said on MSNBC's Daily Rundown. "I'm not projecting exactly what ads we're going to have on the air, but we're not going to shrink from ensuring that Mitt Romney's record is accurate, accurately told out there, and he's held to the positions that he's taken."
The ad will run in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
Alex Gangitano contributed
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