One week after a grim jobs report, President Barack Obama on Thursday unleashed a new campaign ad meant to pressure Congress to pass his stalled plan to battle historically high unemployment—his biggest political vulnerability.
"We're still fighting our way back from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression," Obama says. "Our businesses have created almost 4.3 million new jobs over the last 27 months, but … we're still not creating them as fast as we want."
The campaign said the ad, dubbed "Jobs," was airing in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia—critical battlegrounds—and will start airing on national cable next week.The commercial comes as Obama has been pushing the divided Congress to adopt his jobs plan. The White House and the Obama campaign have highlighted that the initiative aims to help teachers, firefighters, police officers—whose jobs have been threatened by budget cuts at the state level—and construction workers.
The ad does not explicitly blame Republicans for holding up the package. It charges that "Congress refuses to act" on the plan, and does not mention Mitt Romney.
But it includes messages that voters are likely to hear from Obama through to November: He inherited a terrible economy, things are getting better, but he shares your frustration.