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The new Romney ad is very slickly produced. Ads like these can work up to a point, even if the ad is dishonest, as Matt Finkelstein explains that it indeed is.
The ad features audio of the president saying, "There are always going to be bumps in the road to recovery." However, while Obama did make those remarks on the day the employment report came out, he was actually referring to "disruptions" that have added to economic uncertainty, such as the disaster in Japan and the Arab Spring,
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As USA Today reported, "The president did not...specifically address the bad jobs report in his remarks."
Americans are concerned with high unemployment because it means they are not working and the "throw the bums out" mentality steps in and that's not an ideologically driven sentiment.
Sure, we can make the case and demonstrate that Mittens also used the same terminology in 2006:
Before Romney’s consultants decided the phrase would be a potentent polical weapon, he used it himself in the same way as Obama. From the AP, May 1, 2006:
Romney Warns of Potential ‘Bumps in the Road’ for Health Care Law
Massachusetts faces potential “bumps in the road” as it tries to turn the promises of its new health care law into a reality, Gov. Mitt Romney said Monday even as he announced another crucial step in the state’s experiment with near universal coverage. [...]
One of the most daunting tasks is the creation of an entirely new state bureaucracy, known “Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector” the bureaucratic infrastructure on which much of the new law’s innovative reforms rest.
And in reality Romney had a terrible job-creation record in his home state.
Throughout his 15-year career at Bain Capital, which bought, sold, and merged dozens of companies, Romney had other chances to fight to save jobs, but didn't. His ultimate responsibility was to make money for Bain's investors, former partners said.
Much as he did when running for Massachusetts governor, Romney is now touting his business credentials as he campaigns for president, asserting that he helped create thousands of jobs as CEO of Bain. But a review of Bain's investments during Romney's tenure indicates that job growth was not a particular priority.
Bloggers likes us have been saying ever since Obama was elected that job creation was always going to be his biggest challenge because of the destruction of the global financial markets caused by the Bush years.
It's so easily exploitable that I often wrote that Obama should have been giving fireside-like chats explaining to America the difficulties ahead for the nation's economy. Republicans knew this too. But the President also put his trust more in Tim Geithner than anyone else from his economics team and so we're here now with over 9% unemployment. Creating the Cat Food Commission over, let's say, a Jobs Commission didn't make much sense to me. The Obama administration needs to get busy and promote job creation, if it's not too late already instead of focusing on deficits. Even Bernanke is making the case not to cut spending too soon:
Don’t cut spending too fast or you’ll kill the economy.
So Mittens gets to produce an ad attacking him on jobs and the Beltway Village will swoon over it, but in the end results do matter, not ads.
