The Romney campaign responds to Obama's Bain spot with a "gauzy" video about a different steel company, SDI:
The Obama campaign is only testing the waters with its ad, putting $71,000 behind it in five key states. David Graham has more:
The new ad comes after a week in which the political discussion was centered around Barack Obama's endorsement of gay marriage. That stance is a potential liability for the president in swing states: In four of the five states where "Steel" will air (Virginia, Ohio, Colorado, and Pennsylvania), civil gay marriage is banned by state constitutional amendments. An ad that focuses on Rust Belt concerns helps to distract from the social issue question. Meanwhile, it answers Republican critics who complained that Obama was avoiding conversation about the economy — and it puts Romney on the defensive.
Byron York anticipates Romney's counterattack:
First, the campaign has carefully scrutinized Romney's entire record at Bain and believes it is a strongly positive one overall. But that is the big picture — there are individual instances in which Bain investments failed. Given that, look for the Romney campaign and its surrogates to counterattack by focusing on an instance in which Barack Obama, in essence, took over a company and laid people off in an effort to save the larger enterprise. That was, of course, the auto bailouts, and while Obama often cites his success in "saving" the car industry, few remember today how many (non-union) workers lost their jobs in the Obama administration's handling of the matter. During the economic crisis, General Motors and Chrysler shut down more than 700 dealerships, resulting in the loss of tens of thousands of jobs. And the companies did it under pressure from Obama.
But the crony-capitalism charge doesn't sit well with the above ad, as Maggie Haberman notes:
SDI, as the folks at American Bridge point out, may not ultimately be the best test case for Romney to push back with, since it runs counter to other parts of his message – the firm got tax subsidies and levies were raised on an Indiana county to help pay for infrastructure that benefitted the company.
Meanwhile, the RNC focuses on the debt:
And MoveOn.org goes after Romney for "throwing women under the bus":
Previous Ad War Updates: May 10, May 9, May 8, May 7, May 3, May 2, May 1, Apr 30, Apr 27, Apr 26, Apr 25, Apr 24, Apr 23, Apr 18, Apr 17, Apr 16, Apr 13, Apr 11, Apr 10, Apr 9, Apr 5, Apr 4, Apr 3, Apr 2, Mar 30, Mar 27, Mar 26, Mar 23, Mar 22, Mar 21, Mar 20, Mar 19, Mar 16, Mar 15, Mar 14, Mar 13, Mar 12, Mar 9, Mar 8, Mar 7, Mar 6, Mar 5, Mar 2, Mar 1, Feb 29, Feb 28, Feb 27, Feb 23, Feb 22, Feb 21, Feb 17, Feb 16, Feb 15, Feb 14, Feb 13, Feb 9, Feb 8, Feb 7, Feb 6, Feb 3, Feb 2, Feb 1, Jan 30, Jan 29, Jan 27, Jan 26, Jan 25, Jan 24, Jan 22, Jan 20, Jan 19, Jan 18, Jan 17, Jan 16 and Jan 12.
The Dish 