Crossroads GPS, the conservative Super PAC founded by Karl Rove, is launching a nearly half a million dollar ad buy in Pennsylvania. Their television spot that hammers President Obama over broken promises, and comes as Mitt Romney endures a blistering ad assault here.
The 60-second spot comprises four vignettes of the President making a pledge or promise, rebutted by an announcer.
“Today, I’m pledging to cut the deficit we inherited by half by the end of my first term in office,” Obama said during a speech in February 2009.
“Broken. Because he hasn’t even come close,” the ad’s announcer responds. “We need solutions, not just promises.”
The group said in a press release that it will spend $487,000 in PA on network TV as part of a $25 million total buy also in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, and Virginia. The spot will run from May 17 to 31.
Update: The Democratic National Committee responded to the ad, saying it distorted Obama’s record and distracted from Mitt Romney’s.
“Karl Rove’s most recent deceptive ad can’t hide the reality that, unlike Mitt Romney, President Obama has proposed a plan to reduce our deficit by $4 trillion over the next decade while creating an economy built to last through investments in education, infrastructure, and research,” the release said. “Nor can it hide that, as promised, the President has cut taxes for every working American and cut taxes for small business 18 times, bringing federal taxes for middle class households near historic lows.”
The move comes as Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney faces a bevy of negative ads in PA. The Obama campaign is airing this 2-minute negative spot Wednesday only, while the pro-Obama Super PAC Priorities USA Action broadcasts a similarly hard-hitting 30-second spot for at least a week. Both commercials attack Romney over his past as a venture capitalist.
The Obama camp is running this positive ad in full rotation.
“President Obama made commitments on core issues to the American people, and this ad holds him to account,” said Steven Law, president of Crossroads GPS. “Our country faces serious economic and fiscal problems which require practical solutions and not just promises. If we don’t hold Washington politicians accountable, we won’t fix these problems that are holding our country back.”
The ad urges also directs viewers to a new Crossroads GPS issues website: www.newmajorityagenda.org.
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4 Responses
First of all, considering the drop in real estate prices, 20% underwater is surprisingly lower that I would have expected.
Actually, as it turns out, it could be even lower, if the GOP congress wasn’t blocking Obama’s proposals to help out those still underwater to refinance.
However, my point was that the ad would have a different “message” if it said “4 in 5 saved”.
As for the points #2 and #3, it’s outright lies and distortions by the ad, not “semantics”.
As for #4, the GOP congress has rejected Obama’s proposals for cutting the deficit. I think Obama was wrong to extend the Bush tax cuts two more years, but that’s hardly a knock against him from a GOP point of view.
The bottom line is that under the policies of Bush (and Karl Rove) the economy was on the verge of collapse and Obama turned things around. Romney represents the same failed Bush policies, but on steroids.
Yes when your argument is “Hey, only 20% of mortgages are underwater!” It is a serious problem.
Whenever you find yourself arguing over semantics or the extend to which the record has been disappointing, you are losing.
1) 1 in 5 underwater means 4 in 5 are not.
2) The “taxes” Obama was referring to were standard income tax, not other taxes like gasoline, telecommunications, etc. In this case, the ad is disingenuously equating “fees” associated with the health care plan as “taxes”.
3) The CBO report ( http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/216223-cbo-millions-of-americans-could-lose-their-employer-coverage ) said that 20 million COULD lose their employer provider healthcare as a WORST CASE scenario. The SAME report also said that 3 million could GAIN healthcare insurance. And, this is all by 2019 (not an immediate loss this year, and subject to a lot of uncertainty projecting that far out)
4) Obama’s first term is not over yet, and if the Bush tax cuts had been allowed to expire, I think it would have helped a lot with the deficit. The Bush tax cuts are due to expire before the end of Obama’s term, so that’s going to help with deficit.