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All the political attention might be focused on Republicans or even Tropical Storm Isaac, but that's not stopping President Obama from asking for more campaign money. In a new fundraising e-mail today geared to the swing state of Iowa, Obama says he's losing "the air war" and needs $5 or more from donors to pay for more campaign commercials.

David Koch, a billionaire bankrolling anti-Obama ads, is a Mitt Romney delegate to the Republican National Convention... Koch and his brother, Charles, are the major forces behind the conservative group Americans for Prosperity, which is currently funding a $27 million ad blitz against Obama.

...And that will all come on top of the barrage of negative ads from Republican groups. Despite the conventional wisdom that Obama would attack Romney to distract from the poor state of the economy, the Post finds that 100 percent of the ad spending from GOP-aligned groups Americans for Prosperity, the American Energy Alliance, American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS have been negative. 58 percent of Romney’s spending has been on negative ads, compared to only 44 percent of Obama’s. If anyone can win this election on the strength of a barrage of misleading negative ads, it won’t be Obama, it will be his opponent.

House Republicans are reserving more than $18 million in ad time as they look to protect their majority... As with House Democrats, who announced $32 million in ad reservations earlier this year, the NRCC could shift its spending or increase it. But the ad reservations offer an early idea of where Republicans think they will play offense and defense.

An independent group backing Republican Mitt Romney is spending nearly $4 million on ads in nine battleground states. An organization that tracks TV spending by political campaigns says the Romney-aligned Restore Our Future has bought television ad time in Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, Colorado, Nevada, Virginia and New Hampshire.

A Rick Santorum TV ad morphs an image of Obama into Romney, making the point that there are no policy differences between the two.

The Republican Party has a Web ad spotlighting the fact that the debt has grown more under President Obama in less than one term than it did under President George W. Bush in two terms. Since taking office on Jan. 20, 2009, the debt under Obama has increased by $4.93 trillion, according to Treasury Department figures.

Super PACs have poured nearly $4 million into advertising in Ohio ahead of Super Tuesday, accounting for most of the spending in what has become an overwhelmingly negative contest.

Ron Paul is taking aim at his three GOP presidential rivals in a new ad running in Washington, ahead of state caucuses there on Saturday.

A political group supporting Mitt Romney’s Republican presidential bid began airing television advertisements in Michigan today, charging that rival Rick Santorum is a “big spender” and “Washington insider” who backed letting convicted felons vote.