New Obama campaign video hits Mitt Romney's record as governor

The newest video from the Obama campaign is a four-plus minute indictment of Mitt Romney's record as governor of Massachusetts'and a reminder that, as he is doing in 2012, Mitt Romney in 2002 staked his campaign on his experience at Bain Capital, saying that his private sector record would enable him to bring jobs to Massachusetts.

But as the video points out, Mitt Romney had a miserable record of job creation in Massachusetts. Under his leadership, the state ranked 47th in the nation. He now defends that lousy record by saying he inherited a recession, but not only did President Obama inherit an even deeper and longer lasting recession, but an apples-to-apples comparison of President Obama's and Mitt Romney's jobs records shows that Obama has had the better one.

The video also hits Romney for failing to keep his promises to get the state out of debt and in not raising taxes and fees. According to the video, the state's debt increased $2.6 billion during Romney's one term in office and he raised more fees than any other state in the nation in his first year in office.

The video is clearly targeted at people who are following the campaign closely'it isn't in the style of a 30-second or minute-long ad'and the testimonials from public officials in Massachusetts aren't nearly as emotionally gripping as testimonials from workers whose lives were upended by Mitt Romney at Bain. And Bain itself is basically missing from the video, except for the clips at the beginning of Mitt Romney saying in both 2002 and 2012 that his private sector experience will enable him to create jobs. But while the video itself isn't a summer blockbuster, it does contain all the fundamental elements that we'll see in attacks on Romney's economic record in Massachusetts as the campaign progresses.

We'll probably see other elements of Romney's Massachusetts record as well'specifically, Romneycare and his flip-flop on abortion'but as far as the economy goes, the video makes the core argument that we'll be hearing throughout this election: that Mitt Romney's claim to be an economic savant is no more credible in 2012 than it was in 2002, and the proof is in his record as governor'a record which Mitt Romney, not surprisingly, does not want to discuss.