Politicians & Pundits: Mitt Romney

American Crossroads: “Public Equity”

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In an ad titled “Public Equity,” American Crossroads counters President Obama’s criticism of Mitt Romney’s business record by claiming the Obama administration’s “failed investment strategies” are to blame for lost jobs and wasted tax dollars. Crossroads starts by maligning Obama’s auto bailout, which is widely credited for saving the automotive industry; in fact, the industry has gained over 100,000 jobs under the Obama administration. The ad goes on to attack the government’s investment in Solyndra while obscuring the facts about Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program, using clips of a factually flawed news report to overstate the riskiness of the government’s investments.

Read more after the jump.

Crossroads GPS: “Basketball”

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In an ad titled “Basketball,” Crossroads GPS portrays a working mother whose adult children are living at home because they “can’t find jobs to get their careers started.” The woman says that she now regrets voting for President Obama because, as her family’s struggles demonstrate, “things have changed for the worse” under his administration. Despite the ad’s softer tone, however, it relies on the usual distortions of Obama’s record on the economy, health care, and the debt.

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Crossroads GPS: “Obama’s Promise”

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An ad from Crossroads GPS features clips of President Obama describing his policies and accuses the president of breaking his promises to the American people. However, Crossroads’ attempt to use Obama’s words against him backfires, as the ad repeatedly misrepresents the facts about the president’s record.

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American Future Fund: “Justice For Sale”

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The American Future Fund (AFF) is deviating from the conservative line that President Obama wants to punish the rich with an ad accusing Obama of “protecting his Wall Street donors.” However, despite the ad’s suggestion that Obama is a tool of the big banks, Wall Street donors have flocked to the Republican Party in the wake of Democratic reform efforts. In this election cycle, no politician has benefitted from Wall Street’s largesse more than Mitt Romney, who has collected more than twice as much as the president from the financial sector.

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U.S. Chamber Of Commerce: “Wrong”

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The the Chamber of Commerce – which has received millions from the insurance industry to oppose health care reform – attacks Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) for stating that the Affordable Care Act “pays for itself, actually reduces the deficit.” Instead, the Chamber claims, the law will add over $300 billion to federal debt. But the Chamber gets its figures from a dishonest study by a GOP operative who works for the Koch-funded Mercatus Center. The nonpartisan CBO, meanwhile, has affirmed that overall the health care law reduces the deficit by more than $200 billion over the next decade.

Read more after the jump.

U.S. Chamber Of Commerce: “Congressman BIll Owens Supports Higher Taxes, More Job-Killing Regulations, And Obamacare”

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In an ad attacking Rep. Bill Owens (D-NY) for supporting the Affordable Care Act, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce takes a 2010 quote by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) out of context in order to suggest that Democrats hid the law’s contents from the American people. In fact, Pelosi said she was eager for Americans to learn more about the Affordable Care Act “away from the fog of the controversy” created in large part by Republican misinformation – such as the other false claims in the ad about Medicare “cuts” and “lost jobs.”

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Let Freedom Ring: “Bad Start”

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Let Freedom Ring’s minute-long ad attacking the New START nuclear weapons treaty President Obama negotiated with Russia places that group firmly in the small club of ideologues that opposed the treaty when it was ratified by the Senate in 2010. Support for the treaty encompassed nearly the entirety of the American national security establishment – including every living former Secretary of State – and the handful of specific claims about the treaty’s provisions in the ad range from disingenuous to blatantly false.

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Crossroads GPS: “Too Much”

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Crossroads GPS suggests that President Obama is responsible for high gas prices. In fact, domestic energy policy has little influence on the global markets that actually cause gas prices to rise and fall, but that’s not the only thing Crossroads gets wrong. The ad also deliberately misleads viewers about oil production in America, citing a one-year decrease in production on federal land as evidence of Obama’s alleged failure, despite an even greater percentage increase during the previous year.

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Crossroads GPS: “Balloon”

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Crossroads GPS attacks President Obama and Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-IA) for supporting policies that inflated the debt. However, the Affordable Care Act will actually lower deficits, while the Recovery Act and auto bailout saved millions of jobs. In reality, the main drivers of our debt are Bush administration policies, including the tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans, and the massive recession that President Obama inherited upon taking office.

Read more after the jump.