The Republican National Committee released a new Web video Wednesday hitting President Obama for a planned address on the economy Thursday in Cleveland.
The speech is expected to draw sharp contrasts between the president's economic proposals and those of his rival, Mitt Romney, according to reports. And while the president isn't expected to detail new policy proposals, Obama is expected to take a sharper tone in outlining his vision for the country's economic path forward.
But in the video, Republicans charge that this is just the latest in a long history of attempts by President Obama to "pivot" to the economy.
"For years, Obama has been promising to focus on jobs," onscreen text says as the ad opens. "But Obama lost focus on day one."
Clips of the president arguing early in his administration that he was pushing hard for job-creating growth measures are then contrasted with clips of television commentators arguing the president was more focused on policy initiatives like healthcare.
"Tomorrow, Obama will pivot again with another new speech but no new proposals," the text reads. "Obama lost focus on jobs from day one."
Republicans hope that by depicting the president as distracted on the issue most central to voters, they can gain an advantage in November.
"President Obama spent his first term focused on government-run healthcare, more regulation and higher taxes instead of helping the private sector create good-paying middle-class jobs," said RNC Chairman Reince Priebus in a statement.
"President Obama has become out of touch with everyday Americans who trusted him to focus on jobs and turn the economy around. Instead, he decided to focus on a liberal agenda that has made it harder for middle-class Americans to put food on the table and pay their mortgages. Tomorrow, as he once again 'pivots' his economic message without offering any new proposals, President Obama will make clear that from day one he lost focus on jobs and now he has no new plans to create them."
The president, meanwhile, is likely to argue that Republicans are doubling down on economic policies that led to the recession, as he did Tuesday during a campaign speech in Philadelphia.
"These problems that we’ve got, they weren’t created overnight, and we never thought they’d be solved overnight. But we understand where we need to go. We understand we’ve got to keep moving forward. And we understand that the last thing we need is to go back to the very same policies that got us into this mess in the first place," Obama said.
"And let me tell you something: That is all the other side is offering. That’s all they’re offering. Gov. Romney is a patriotic American, he’s got a lovely family and he should be proud of his personal success. But his ideas are just retreads of stuff that we have tried and that have failed. Bill Clinton described it well the other day — he said, 'They want to do the same thing, just on steroids.' "
