The Republican National Committee (RNC) released a new TV ad in several swing states on Tuesday morning that uses Barack Obama’s own words against him and aims to knock some of the presidential glitter off of tonight’s campaign-themed State of the Union speech.
“The president will use his address to campaign and continue to make the same failed promises we’ve seen for the past three years,” said a statement from Kirsten Kukowski, an RNC spokeswoman. But his speech also “presents us with an opportunity to speak directly to voters in those key battleground states about what the state of our union really is,” she said.
The ad is being broadcast in the D.C. media marketplace, in two swing states — Virginia and North Carolina — and in Michigan, where Obama is slated to give an education policy speech Jan. 26.
“We’re going into Michigan to show voters how vulnerable this president is in what many would consider his own backyard,” said Kukowski.
The dark-toned and dramatically scored 30-second ad begins by highlighting Obama’s Feb. 2009 statement — “If I don’t have this done in four years, then there’s going to be a one-term proposition” — and immediately contrasts it with his economic record.
Former President Bill Clinton is shown saying that “things are not going in the right direction: They’re going in the wrong direction.” Obama gets the final cut, declaring on video that “I don’t think they’re better off than they were four years ago.”
Watch the new RNC ad:
The ad’s reliance on Democrats’ comments about Obama is likely to be a feature of the RNC’s 2012 media campaign, partly because the public finds inter-party accusations untrustworthy.
“Barack Obama has a lot of a explaining to do in tonight’s State of the Union Address,” said a statement from RNC Chairman Reince Priebus.
“The day after he delivers his State of the Union Address, Barack Obama will be jetting off to five states he wants to win to be reelected … [but] the American people need a president who will focus on the single most important issue in the country: fixing our economy,” said his statement.
