(CNN) – Crossroads GPS, the conservative super PAC co-founded by Karl Rove, announced Tuesday it was spending nearly $10 million to air an attack ad in ten battleground states painting President Barack Obama's economic policies as failures.
Jonathan Collegio, a spokesman for the group, said the buy was part of a larger $25 million purchase announced last week.
– Follow the Ticker on Twitter: @PoliticalTicker
The minute-long spot, called "Basketball," will air on network television in a host of states up for grabs in November's general election: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
The spot is narrated by an actress playing a woman whose adult children have moved back home after not being able to find good paying jobs.
"It's funny, they can't find jobs to get their careers started, and I can't afford to retire. And now we're all living together again," the woman says in the ad.
She says she voted for Obama in 2008 "because he spoke so beautifully."
"He promised change, but things changed for the worse," the woman says.
In a statement, the president of Crossroads GPS said the ad was reflective of problems faced by real Americans.
"This ad drives home the impact President Obama's policies are having on American families and why those policies need to be changed," Steven Law wrote. "We want there to be a serious debate on the real issues people are facing in this country, and this ad expresses the human element of that debate."
Priorities USA, a super PAC supporting Obama's re-election, responded to the ad on Tuesday with an ad of its own, as well as a statement calling into question the fictional family portrayed in the Crossroads spot. The Priorities ad featured a woman who worked at Bain-owned American Pad and Paper until being laid off after the company went bankrupt.
"I worked at the plant going on 34 years," the woman in the ad, Loris Huffman, said. "I thought that I was going to retire from there. I had about two and a half years to go. I was suddenly 60 years old. I had no healthcare and that's scary. When Mitt Romney did that, he made me sick."
Bill Burton, the co-founder of Priorities USA, said the spot would run as part of its previously announced $4 million purchase and air in Colorado, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Burton said the spot was a better reflection of reality than the Crossroads spot.
"They key feature of Karl Rove's ad is using actors to portray a fictional family. In our ads, we portray real life stories of Americans who were devastated by the decisions Mitt Romney made," Burton wrote.
– CNN's Kevin Bohn contributed to this report.
From CNN Politics
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
| Advertising practices | Advertise with us | About us | Work for us | Help
Look at that marble counter top! And all those windows, the stylish light fixture over the table in the dining nook... The people I know who have houses like that barely even knew the recession was happening. Someone needs to explain the housing bubble and mortgage crisis to this woman, and how Romney wants to set things up so it can happen again. Then she needs to figure out how to get her kids started in lives of their own. As with the economy, there are no easy answers - President Obama never said there were. She's naive if she listens to someone like Karl Rove, who pretends otherwise. She voted for President Obama so her kids would have a chance to get a good education and *work* for their future. That bit about having everything handed to them? Just more Republican fantasy b.s.
Views, you make not one bit of sense. Degrees are being pursued by all walks of like. Do you recall at all Paul making his tour around college campuse?. Oh gees, who are those kids getting college degrees? Seems to me they are republican if they follow Paul as a GOP candidate.
Who are doctors, lawyers and dentists? Most I know are republican, and have many degrees. Wall street is mostly republican due to their ideas of capital demand.
American Democracy: Membership restricted to the Wealthy(I'm sorry, Job Creators) only.
Crossroads GPS is the political arm of the conservative activist judges on the US Supreme Court.
@the real truth
""Move to Greece or France if you want conservative govt. handouts... and look where that got us (in 08) and them now....""
-------------------------------------------
And with that statement, what little credibility you ever had went right out the window.
Remember, it has been Democrats that keep saying that they are more educated and have more college degrees than Republicans and Democrat surveys show this to be true so why are you guys upset now that your college degrees are getting you those high paying jobs in huge corporations and in Wall Street? Wall Street won't hire without a college degree which means Democrats are getting those jobs and probably a few Republicans with a college degree. Remember, you guys said that it was better to have a Democrat President because Democrats are more educated and have more college degrees. Hey, I'm just repeating what you guys wrote me.
During Bush II, the company I worked for did not give any raises - eight years - despite the fact that we consistently had better bottom line results that our industry's standards. I finally left in late 2008, and have since found not one, but two jobs, doing the same type of work. Each has provided me with more money that the previous job. And these are all small businesses.
The economy is getting better,
Presidents DON'T CREATE jobs....
@sonny chapman
"American Democracy: Membership restricted to the Wealthy(I'm sorry, Job Creators) only."
----------–
The Wealthy are Democrats now adays not Republicans. Republicans are Job Creators.
Let Crossroads waste $10 million more-Romney won't win. GOP always on the wrong side of history on anything and everything. Karl Rove just became the $25 million dollar joke last week with the sorry ad he put out.
Yes Indeed the 1% has the cash to throw around on ads but, do not want to pay their fair share of taxes. Think people. Romney is ther puppet and they are spending every dime to make sure that he wins so that they can keep deregulation, pay lower taxes, start wars and send the children of the 99% to fight for them and lose their lives and last but not least help big oil. They have so much hatred and bigotry for President Obama they are willing to gamble it all to get him out of the white house.
@cali girl
Who are doctors, lawyers and dentists? Most I know are republican, and have many degrees. Wall street is mostly republican due to their ideas of capital demand.
_________________
And this is a bad thing because? Dems are doctors and lawyers too. Look at John Edwards, big rich lawyer and Obama big rich lawyer and Michelle Obama, big rich lawyer. Hillary Clinton, lawyer...enough said? Education comes from those who want it.
@Lolo – you do realize that the higher income bracket is held by Democrats? Democrats make more money than Republicans due to the fact that Democrats are higher educated than Republicans and their education gets them the higher paying jobs.
That's the best they can come up with? A fake family and fake story? Really? That's a cool ten million that just went right down the crapper.
The only way they can attack President Obama is by lying. Smart people see through their lies.
Am I better off than 3.5 years ago? No. Taxes might not have gone up, but deductions disappeared, so less back in taxes. Paycheck dropped $3000 per year. Nope, definately better off before Obama. Romney will be Obama-lite, so if he gets in, at least the damage will proceed more slowly.
The Romney Campaign and RNC also just unloaded a little over $1M for ads appearing this week in Ohio and Iowa. After making $40M in April, we're not surprised to them spend a little more for TV time. However, Romney's digital market share still trails Obama's by a considerable amount. While we are number crunchers, we are also curious as to how effective and influential TV spots are nowadays. What say you? Is a minute-long TV ad more effective than a well-run viral video campaign?
@my view is, you are the only one who is making a distinction along party lines, but truth be told you know that your party is playing on the stupidity of people who are less educated and trust and believe that most of them are in the south and midwest who are racist and a republican/tpartier. Romney may have two degrees from Harvard but he acts and speaks like a spoiled rich brat who had everything given to him. He does not care about other people beneath him and you know this but will vote for him anyway. If you are not making 1million or more you will see how much he likes you if he is voted in as president. You are buying into your paty's BS why I do not know. I can only guess many reasons. Just like the bullying he committed, his dad just paid the prep school off and it was swept under the rug because of the money.
Ironic ad. In tea party America they would consider that family lazy and ill prepared. The mom did not plan properly for retirement, while the kids probably got degrees in unmarketable majors like philosophy. There is work for those who are willing they would say. It's your fault. (so how can it be the President's?)
My kids can't get good paying jobs and have to live with me. Let young people start at the bottom like most of us had to do years ago. That's one of the problems with this country spoiled brats used to instant gratification. What a stupid ad based on fiction and not reality. There is no right that gives anyone a good paying job or a easy life. Stop complaining, go to work and get a job even if it is low paying brats.
when they ask are we better off then we were 3.5 years ago, maybe we should be asking 600000 people a month that were losing their jobs, or the auto industry about to collapse or dare i say the banking industry that was about to do the same.
I don't care whether it is democrat or Republican. The problem is the republicans do not want to pony up to help their fellow Americans. All I care about is making sure that everyone gets a fair shot, not just the rich. I do not need a million dollars a year or more to survive. Most rich people don't know what to do with their money anyway. You can't drive more than one car at a time nor can you live in more than one house at a time. How about just cutting my taxes and the rest of the people who are building America with blood sweat and tears and taxing the rich the share that they should be paying, since they love just jet setting.? Easy solution don't you think?
Geez! Where were these crossroads creeps in 2007 and 2008! Everything was perfect then, right?
The spot is narrated by an actress playing a woman. Enough said. Republicans LOVE actors Reagan, Schwarzenegger. Haven't we had enough of this script?
The "adult children" in this ad look like high schoolers. Maybe if the daughter didn't have pigtails and the son wasn't wearing a shirt with a little kid dressed as a bee (?) would the ad maybe be more believable.