Democratic National Committee pounds Romney again over misleading ad

Democratic National Committee video released Nov. 29

Romney campaign ad released Nov. 22

UPDATE FROM ROMNEY CAMPAIGN BELOW…

Last week, GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney went up with his first ad in New Hampshire, slammed for being misleading because it used an edited quote from President Obama in a spot about Obama not carrying out his 2008 campaign pledges.

Romney team members I talked to were not all that upset with the criticism of the spot–they knew what they were doing– because a. it elevated Romney from the GOP pack b. it drew attention to the message in the spot–it had more than 200,000 views in a YouTube version c. it was sort of an experiment to see how crazy it would drive the Obama team, which was plenty.

The Democratic National Committee and the Obama 2012 campaign reacted strongly about the sliced and diced quote and on Tuesday released a web video more than twice as long as the original Romney ad making the case that the ad backfired with New Hampshire voters.

“Mitt Romney may not think lying in your campaign ads is a big deal, but voters sure do, including those in New Hampshire where his deceptive ad is running,” said DNC spokesman Brad Woodhouse.

UPDATE

“As Debbie Wasserman Schultz once said, Barack Obama is a ‘below the belt’ negative campaigner. Voters deserve to know why the unemployment rate under President Obama is still above 9%, why it is so hard to find work, and why this Administration has wreaked more havoc on the middle class than any other in modern history. The reason why President Obama spends so much time attacking Mitt Romney is because he has no idea how to attack unemployment.” – Ryan Williams Romney Spokesperson

END UPDATE

Here is what I wrote on Nov. 22 about the ad, where I said it was misleading by editing the quote:

WASHINGTON–Timed for President Obama’s New Hampshire visit on Tuesday, GOP Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is up with his first ad in the early primary state, attacking Obama for not carrying out his 2008 campaign pledges–made in New Hampshire. The 60 second spot is titled “Believe in America” and comes as Obama is in New Hampshire to push his jobs plans and payroll tax cut proposals.

Romney, so far a run-away front-runner in New Hampshire’s GOP primary, ignores his Republican rivals in the spot–and jumps to a general election theme. The spot includes footage from an Oct. 16, 2008 Obama campaign stop in New Hampshire, when he was locked in a general election battle with Sen. John McCain (R-Az.)

The problem with the spot: the Romney campaign misleads by using an edited slice of an Obama quote and not including his whole sentence.

Obama in Romney ad: “If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.”

Entire Obama sentence on Oct. 16, 2008: “Senator McCain’s campaign actually said, and I quote, if we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.”

The Romney website post about the ad accurately provides the context absent from the misleading spot. Romney website post: “Three years ago, candidate Barack Obama mocked his opponent’s campaign for saying “if we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.” Now, President Obama’s campaign is desperate not to talk about the economy. Their strategy is to wage a personal campaign – or “kill Romney.” It is a campaign of distraction.”