2012 Presidential Election, Political Ads | featured news

President Obama, Republican challenger Mitt Romney, and their allies have already spent $87 million on TV ads, the Associated Press reports -- most of it in nine battleground states. They are, not surprisingly, nine toss-up states that will likely decide the election: Florida, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Nevada and New Hampshire.

Fox News Channel's morning show on Wednesday twice aired a nearly four-minute video that contrasted President Barack Obama's words with negative statistics about his administration in a format that looked similar to a campaign advertisement.

Here’s today’s political bombshell, courtesy of the New York Times: A GOP-leaning Super PAC funded by the founder of TD Ameritrade and the owner of the Chicago Cubs, Joe Ricketts, is considering a proposal to launch TV ads re-litigating President Obama’s ties to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. And it would be timed to air leading up to the Democratic convention in September. “The $10 million plan, one of several being studied by Mr. Ricketts, includes preparations for how to respond to the charges of race-baiting it envisions if it highlights Mr. Obama’s former ties to Mr. Wright, who espouses what is known as ‘black liberation theology.’

Last week, President Obama's campaign launched a fictional storybook ad called, "The Life of Julia." The slide show narrative follows Julia, a cartoon character, from age 3 to age 67 and explains how Obama's policies, from Head Start to Obamacare to mandated contraception coverage to Medicare reform, would provide Julia with a better life than Mitt Romney or Paul Ryan could.

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.

Watching these ads is a depressing duty for The Fact Checker, because many of their claims — regarding “billions” of stimulus dollars going overseas — had been debunked two years ago by our colleagues at PolitiFact and Factcheck.org. Yet here the erroneous assertions emerge yet again, without any shame, labeled as “the truth” or “fact.”

Two pro-Obama groups slam Mitt Romney as a tool of the oil industry in a TV ad that plays up high gas prices.

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

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.