2012 Presidential Election, Political Ads | featured news

President Obama has a new television ad featuring a testimonial from Democratic predecessor Bill Clinton. In the spot -- which is running in eight swing states -- Clinton casts the Obama-Mitt Romney race as "a clear choice" between two different economic plans.

Mitt Romney claims he's got a winner with his criticism that President Barack Obama is giving welfare recipients a free ride. Never mind that aspects of his argument against the Democrat are factually inaccurate....

Mitt Romney blasted the tone of President Obama's campaign, charging his rival with running a "divisive" race.

Mitt Romney is assailing President Obama's character in a new ad that hits back at a controversial spot by a Democratic super PAC. "What does it say about a president's character when his campaign tries to use the tragedy of a woman's death for political gain?" the narrator asks in the Romney ad released today. "Doesn't America deserve better than a president who will say or do anything to stay in power?

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.

Romney's latest problem with conservatives flowed from a spokeswoman's reflections this week on the benefits of the Massachusetts health care law. That Romney-proposed law remains a touchy topic, since it was a model for President Barack Obama's health care overhaul — which Romney now condemns. In criticizing an outside group's ad linking Romney to the cancer death of a laid-off steelworker's wife, Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul told Fox News, "If people had been in Massachusetts under Gov. Romney's health care plan, they would have had health care."

“The Obama administration, working with the Republican governors of states like Nevada and Utah, is giving states additional flexibility only if they move more people from welfare to work – not fewer," said spokeswoman Lis Smith, adding that Romney, as governor, "petitioned the federal government for waivers that would have let people stay on welfare for an indefinite period, ending welfare reform as we know it."

Despite several visits from President Obama and Mitt Romney since then, a barrage of ads and the state’s recent mass shooting, Obama’s lead remains essentially unchanged at 49 percent to 43 percent.

The main super PAC helping President Obama is out with an emotional ad today slamming Mitt Romney's business record, featuring an ex-steelworker talking about his wife's death after the couple lost their health insurance.

Candidates may raise the unprecedented sums of political cash being funneled through Super PACs this year, and media strategists may decide how to spend them – but the people who actually wind up pocketing much of the money are America's television broadcasters. Since the Supreme Court voided limits on political donations in Citizens United, more money than ever is being devoted to negative TV ads. Industry analysts predict that upwards of $3 billion will be spent on political advertising this year – a surge of more than $500 million over 2008.