Mitt Romney's campaign released its first post-convention television ad Thursday morning, a spot featuring the Republican nominee speaking directly into the camera about his job plan.
“Let me tell you how I will create 12 million jobs when President Obama couldn't," Romney says, as stock footage of assembly lines and the candidate speaking with American workers rolls.
"First, my energy independence policy means more than 3 million new jobs, many of them in manufacturing," Romney argues. "My tax reform plan to lower rates for the middle class and for small business creates 7 million more, and expanding trade, cracking down on China and improving job training takes us to over 12 million new jobs.”
On-screen text then encourages viewers to visit Romney's website to review the plan.
Romney debuted the ambitious employment projection in August, and it has become a staple of his campaign stump speeches.
On Wednesday night, President Obama repeatedly challenged the economic assumptions underpinning Romney's plan.
"I think math, common sense and our history shows us that’s not a recipe for job growth," Obama said at the first presidential debate. "Look, we’ve tried this — we’ve tried both approaches. The approach that Gov. Romney is talking about is the same sales pitch that was made in 2001 and 2003. And we ended up with the slowest job growth in 50 years. We ended up moving from surplus to deficits, and it all culminated in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression."
But Romney said "virtually everything" Obama described about his tax plan was inaccurate, and Republicans challenged the president's claim that "over the last 30 months, we’ve seen 5 million jobs in the private sector created."
The Romney campaign noted that including job losses at the beginning of the president's term, the economy has added a net total of just 125,000 jobs.
Romney campaign officials said Thursday that the candidate would aggressively push his plan at a campaign stop in Virginia with vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan.
