Everything you need to know about the current Ohio ad war has been ably stated by Jonathan Cohn. Mitt Romney’s campaign, currently wringing the last droplets out of the “momentum” storyline, went up with an ad warning that Chrysler would move Jeep production to China. Not actually true. Chrysler was going to build more Jeeps in China as it kept American factories open, steadily making their Jeeps. So a new Romney ad went live, with this script:
Obama took GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy, and sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to build jeeps in China. Mitt Romney will fight for every American job.
It’s wonderfully deceptive. “Going to build jeeps in China” sounds a lot like the company’s going to move your job over to China, doesn’t it? But it’s like saying “I’m going to vacation in Florida” if you’re going to vacation in Florida and 12 other states, because you got extra vacation days.
The Obama campaign’s response is the punchiest new thing they’ve had in weeks.
That last clip of Romney saying “let Detroit go bankrupct” seemed, at first, like Obama answering dishonesty with more dishonestly. But check the video – it’s not misleading at all! If Ohio’s one of the last places where Romney remains weakened by low favorables, this ad works.
