The Republican National Committee debuted a new Web ad Tuesday mocking President Obama's response to a woman whose husband was looking for work.
Obama's comments came during a "Google+ hangout" in which the president video-chatted with Americans across the country via the social network.
The president was pressed by a woman who asked why he was extending visas for foreigners to come to the United States and take engineering jobs when her husband, an unemployed semiconductor engineer, was unable to find work.
Obama said that he found it "interesting" that her husband couldn't find a job, because "the word that we're getting is that somebody in that type of high-tech field, that kind of engineer, should be able to find something right away." He also asked her to forward along her husband's resume to find out "exactly what's happening right there."
The RNC seized on Obama's "interesting" remark, hoping to portray the president as disconnected from Americans out of work. In the spot, the president's comments are played over ominous music and spliced between an interview with the woman, who later told an Oklahoma television station that she didn't believe the president's statistics and reports showing job growth in the engineering sector.
"It's interesting to see a president so clearly out of touch with Americans' economic reality," the on-screen text says.
RNC Chairman Reince Priebus argued that Obama's "hemming and hawing" revealed that the president was "out of touch."
“President Obama’s exchange yesterday with a concerned woman whose husband is out of work shows exactly how out of touch this president is when it comes to the dismal economic climate he has created,” said Priebus in a statement.
“His ivory tower view of ‘economic recovery’ is in stark contrast with the harsh reality of millions of Americans who are struggling to find jobs because of Barack Obama’s failed economic policies.”
