Mitt Romney released a new Web ad Thursday that mocks President Obama for bragging about his accomplishments as president, arguing he's only excelled at "piling on debt."
The ad accuses Obama of having "named himself one of the country's four best presidents — better than George Washington, John F. Kennedy and even Ronald Reagan."
As the narrator and on-screen text hammer the president, video of an infant crawling and flailing his arms is shown in the background.
“But Mr. President was just being modest. He’s in fact America’s best president at piling on debt,” the narrator continues.
The ad criticizes Obama for having "managed to pile on nearly as much debt as all the previous presidents combined."
“All he needed was just four years to outspend 220 years of history. We can’t afford four more years of America’s best president," the narrator concludes.
The ad's claim that Obama named himself one of America's four greatest presidents plays off a "60 Minutes" interview from last December. In the interview, Obama said he would put his "foreign policy accomplishments in our first two years against any president — with the possible exceptions of Johnson, F.D.R., and Lincoln — just in terms of what we've gotten done in modern history." He quickly added that, "when it comes to the economy, we've got a lot more work to do."
The Romney campaign is trying to paint the president as overly enamored with his own accomplishments and unconcerned about deficits.
"President Obama will likely spend the next nine months giving nice speeches with a lot of memorable phrases. But we have seen enough. One term of President Obama has proved to be one term too many. Our country cannot afford four more years of President Obama," the campaign said in a statement accompanying the video.
The video is the latest evidence that the Romney campaign is looking to move away from the bruising GOP primary and instead focus their efforts against the president, who has seen his poll numbers grow during the hard-fought nominating contest.
On Wednesday night, Romney earned the endorsement of popular freshman Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), viewed as the odds-on favorite for the party's vice presidential nomination. In announcing his endorsement on Fox News, Rubio warned that a prolonged GOP fight was "a recipe for disaster" and urged the party to coalesce around Romney's candidacy.
