Desperate Much? Obama Attacks Romney as 'Corporate Raider'

Obama can't run on his record, so we'll be seeing a variation of these ads for the next four and a half months.

At ABC News, "Obama attacks Mitt Romney as a ‘corporate raider' in a pair of new ad":

President Barack Obama's reelection campaign redoubled its assault on Republican challenger Mitt Romney on Wednesday, assailing him in a pair of new attack ads as a fee-hiking "corporate raider" who oversaw jobs flight to China and Mexico. The former Massachusetts governor's campaign hit back hard with a long rebuttal document calling into question some of the commercials' core charges.

The ads will run in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Iowa, Colorado and Nevada. While some high-profile Democrats, like former president Bill Clinton, have expressed doubts about the strategy of hitting Romney over his time at Bain Capital, a poll out earlier this month strongly suggested that the approach resonates with voters in pivotal battleground states.

The two ads -- the one about fees was dubbed "Mosaic," while the Bain-focused one bore the name "Come and Go" -- reflect the Obama campaign's core argument on the economy, the president's greatest political vulnerability. They aim to tear down Romney's claim that, as a wildly successful investor, he knows best what can steady the sputtering economy and create jobs, while warning voters that Romney would favor the wealthy where Obama aims to help the middle class. And one of the ads throws in a reference to the former Massachusetts governor's vast personal wealth for good measure. Romney "did cut taxes — on millionaires like himself. But he raised taxes and fees on everyone else" the narrator says.

The video says he raised fees and other duties: "On health care. On school bus rides. On milk. On driver's licenses. On nursing homes. On lead poisoning prevention. On meat and poultry inspection. On fishermen and gun owners. On nurses. On electricians. On hospitals. On funeral homes. On mental health services. On hospice care. On elevator repair."

And "as a corporate raider, he shipped jobs to China and Mexico."

The Romney campaign countered immediately, with spokeswoman Andrea Saul saying "these misleading ads are the latest effort by the Obama campaign to distract attention from the president's failed policies that have led to high unemployment and falling incomes."

"It's still the economy and the American people aren't stupid," she said.

Here's RCP's polling average nationally: "General Election: Romney vs. Obama." Something's badly wrong with that Bloomberg poll --- it's a complete outlier.

Obama has ever reason to be worried and all the incentive to go heavily negative. He may have bought a brief reprieve with the amnesty ploy, but Fast and Furious is now in the pipeline and he's going come out looking like the thug he is on this one.

More later on the horse race.

UPDATE: Here's Andrew Malcolm, "Obama's immigration ploy gains him nada."