Pres. Obama spending on attack ads soars

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Associated Press

Story Created: Sat Jul 14, 2012 2:52 PM

Story Updated: Sat Jul 14, 2012 2:52 PM

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's campaign has spent nearly $100 million on television commercials in selected battleground states so far. It's part of an effort to create lasting, negative impressions of Republican Mitt Romney before he and his allies ramp up for the fall.

Organizations that track media spending and other sources say more than one-fifth of the president's ad spending has been in Ohio. Florida ranks second and Virginia third.
Obama's television ad spending dwarfs the Romney campaign's so far by a margin of 4-1 or more.
About three-quarters of the president's advertising has been critical of Romney.
Obama's campaign has launched five commercials this month, including an attack ad released today that shows Romney singing an off-key rendition of "America The Beautiful." Pictures and signs scroll by that say his companies shipped jobs to Mexico and China. Massachusetts state jobs went to India while he was governor and he has personal investments in Switzerland, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.
A memo from the Romney campaign distributed this week says "Despite all of the negative advertising from the Obama campaign, polling numbers are exactly where they were before they started this onslaught."