The latest ad from the Mitt Romney campaign features the GOP candidate touting his own bipartisan successes during his tenure as governor of Massachusetts, drawing an implicit contrast with President Obama, who has seen much of his legislative agenda of late thwarted by Congress.
"We have to work on a collaborative basis, not because we're going to compromise our principle, but because there's common ground," Romney says in the ad. "[L]ook, the reason I'm in this race is there are people that are really hurting today in this country. And we face — this deficit could crush the future generation.
The Republican challenger goes on to say that "Republicans and Democrats both love America."
"But we need to have leadership — leadership in Washington that will actually bring people together and get the job done and could not care less if — if it's a Republican or a Democrat," Romney says. "I've done it before. I'll do it again."
The Romney campaign did not say where the ad would air or how much money the campaign was putting behind the spot, although it is expected to run as part of a reported $14 million post-debate ad buy.
During the debate, Obama disputed the idea that he had not tried to be bipartisan while discussing comprehensive immigration reform — and said voices like Romney's were preventing compromise.
"When Governor Romney says the challenge is, well, 'Obama didn’t try,' that’s not true," Obama said. "I sat down with Democrats and Republicans at the beginning of my term, and I said, let’s fix this system, including senators previously who have supported it on the Republican side. But it’s very hard for Republicans in Congress to support comprehensive immigration reform if their standard-bearer has said that this is not something I’m interested in supporting."
