Both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama are off the campaign trail today, but their campaigns are not resting. The two sides released new ads this weekend that struck some fresh themes, with the Romney campaign seizing on the unemployment figures that came out Friday and the Obama campaign making an appeal to female voters.
The ad by the Romney campaign, called “It's Just Not Getting Better,†was released Sunday, and notes that “in July, unemployment went up again.†That assertion is true, as the jobless rate ticked up to 8.3 percent last month from 8.2 percent in June. But the Labor Department found that 163,000 jobs were created, a figure Democrats touted as evidence of a recovering economy.
The Obama campaign ad highlights Mr. Romney's comment that he would “get rid of†Planned Parenthood. But Mr. Romney's campaign later clarified the remarks, saying he would eliminate its federal subsidies, not get rid of th e program, an approach similar to the one he would take with Amtrak.
In a statement, Adrea Saul, speaking for the Romney campaign, criticized the Obama ad as misleading while calling it a distraction from the nation's economic problems:
“One day after the unemployment rate increased and we reached 42 consecutive months with a jobless rate greater than 8 percent, it is not surprising that the Obama campaign would release a false ad in an attempt to distract from the effects of the president's failed policies. Dishonest political attacks will not change the fact that President Obama has not turned around the economy, and his policies have hurt women and families all over the country. We tried it the president's way, and middle-class workers have paid the price. Mitt Romney has a plan for a stronger middle class that will jumpstart the economy and bring back millions of jobs.â€
President Obama returns to the White House on Sunday fr om Camp David, where he was celebrating his birthday, while Mitt Romney will be at his country house in Wolfeboro, N.H.
