Updated at 9:50 a.m. ET
(CBS News) Less
than a week after proclaiming the start of the
general presidential election, President Obama’s re-election team is unveiling its first negative ad campaign
specifically targeting the presumptive Republican nominee, Mitt Romney.
Obama for America’s new ad, called “Swiss
Bank Account,” casts Romney as a corporate raider more interested in building up profits than the nation’s economy. It also
takes on the conservative group Americans for Prosperity and the oil industry.
The 30-second spot begins by defending
Mr. Obama’s record on energy investments against the charges Americans for Prosperity made in a $6 million ad buy. “President Obama’s clean energy initiatives have helped create jobs for
projects across America, not overseas,” a narrator says as the ad shows a map of where energy investments have created
jobs.
“What about Mitt Romney?” the narrator continues. “As a corporate CEO, he shipped American jobs to places like
Mexico and China.”
Then, taking a page right out of Newt Gingrich’s primary playbook, the ad hits Romney for failing
to initially disclose a Swiss bank account in his financial disclosure reports. “It’s just what you expect from a guy
who had a Swiss Bank Account,” the narrator says.
The ad will air in the swing states of Virginia, Ohio and Iowa. A
senior campaign official told CBS News it is a significant buy that will air on broadcast.
While the Obama campaign
isn’t wasting any time going negative, they’re also rolling out a positive campaign message. Yesterday, the Obama team unveiled a seven-minute
video called “Forward,” focusing on the president’s accomplishments so far, which it plans to play during the
president’s first campaign rallies over the weekend.
The Romney campaign on Tuesday responded to the Obama ad,
calling it part of “a series of sideshows.”
“Unable to defend his failed record of 23 million Americans struggling for
work, wasteful boondoggles like Solyndra, skyrocketing national debt, and unacceptably high energy prices, President Obama
has once again resorted to attacking Mitt Romney,” Romney campaign spokesperson Amanda Henneberg said in a statement. “The
American people have suffered enough over the last three years and deserve better.”
