With its matter-of-fact “this or that†cadence, this 30-second ad recalls the famous 1980s “This is your brain on drugs†commercials. “This was household income when President Obama took office; this was the national debt,†an announcer says as a bar chart adjusts accordingly, with the national debt bar growing as the income bar falls.
The image then shifts to Mr. Romney explaining to an audience that he would cut government spending. “We can't keep buying and spending and passing on debts to our kids. And I'll stop it,†he says as a shot of a woman in a cap and gown hugging a child is shown.
By highlighting the drop in average household income - which the ad puts in the context of the Obama presidency, ignoring that incomes began falling when George W. Bush was still in office - Mr. Romney is reinforcing a point he makes repeatedly: that Americans are not better off today than they were four years a go.
