The series of attacks is diminishing the status of the president, a Romney aide says. Mitt aide: Obama camp not credible

In the newest attempt to to connect with middle-class voters, Mitt Romney will launch a bus tour on Saturday through a series of towns that went blue in 2008. And he’s hoping his new running mate, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, can help.

The presumptive GOP nominee is headed to Virginia, North Carolina, Florida and Ohio and stopping overwhelmingly in places that voted for President Barack Obama the last go-round.


“We’re going right into the lion’s den in terms of blue voters,” a senior adviser said on Friday morning, briefing reporters on the tour.

The barnstorming was scheduled as speculation over who Romney would pick as his vice presidential running mate reached a fever pitch. Romney is planning to announce his choice of Ryan Saturday morning in Norfolk. But many observers had doubted Romney would have his VP candidate in tow — since many of those who were at one time possible running mates will accompany him for various stops on the tour. Expected to join Romney are Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Sen. Ron Portman.

Romney hopes to change the subject from the barrage of attacks being leveled at him by the Obama campaign and the super PACs that support his candidacy — the latest one a controversial spot that lays the blame on Romney for the death of a man’s wife who lost his job from a Bain-controlled company.

“Mitt Romney is going to be talking about his plan to create a stronger middle class,” said Eric Fehrnstrom, a senior Romney strategist. “We’re going to be highlighting the work for small-business owners. We’re going to talk about repealing ‘Obamacare,’ about getting tough on China.”

In the same breath, Fehrnstrom criticized Obama for not talking about substance. He argued that Romney’s tour will be built around policy discussions, which the campaign has been criticized for failing to elaborate on . He said Romney’s campaign will “respond forcefully to Obama’s ugly distortion and lies.”

“We are betting that a substantive campaign conducted on the high ground and focused primarily on jobs and the economy will trump a campaign that is designed to appeal to our worst instincts,” Fehrnstrom said.

Replied Obama campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith: “The Romney campaign’s faux outrage over an ad run by an outside group separate from our campaign rings extremely hollow. … Mitt Romney won the Republican primary only by tearing down each of his opponents with ruthlessly negative campaigning, including ads funded by outside allies.”

“When the Romney campaign finally reaches the high ground, we look forward to greeting them there,” the aide added.

Fehrnstrom blasted Priorities USA, the Obama-aligned super PAC that ties the GOP nominee to a sick woman, and again condemned the Obama campaign for alleging that Romney could be a felon for telling voters he wasn’t involved with Bain in a substantive way post-1999.

“The Obama campaign has engaged in not only an outright falsehood, beyond that their campaign has deceived the public over what they knew about it,” Fehrnstrom said. “When you start running ads accusing your opponent of killing people, then you have lost credibility, and I think that’s where the Obama campaign finds itself.”

Fehrnstrom argued that the series of attacks coming out of Chicago and pro-Obama super PACs is diminishing the status of the president.

“I don’t think a world champion limbo dancer could get any lower than the Obama campaign right now,” Fehrnstrom said. “In the process, Obama has squandered what has always been one of his key attributes, that he was a different kind of politician who would take us to a different place.”

Meanwhile, the Romney campaign released a new ad Friday titled “America Deserves Better” that questions the “character” of a president who “tries to use the tragedy of a woman’s death for political gain.”

“What does it say about a president’s character when he had his campaign raise money for the ad then stood by as his top aides were caught lying about it?” the ad asks. “Doesn’t America deserve better than a president who will stay or do anything to stay in power?”

But when asked repeatedly if the Romney campaign would set a standard for it’s own accuracy in advertising, Fehrnstrom parried by telling reporters they should be asking the same of Obama’s campaign.

During the briefing, the campaign laid out a series of poll numbers it thinks bode well for it, including close margins in Florida and North Carolina. However, Romney aides sought to downplay a recent series of polls that show Romney losing ground nationally.

In the past week, a number of surveys have shown Obama gaining some ground in what was once a closely matched race. A Reuters/Ipsos poll showed Obama with 7-percentage-point lead, a Fox News poll showed the president with a 9-point lead and CNN survey showed the Democrat leading Romney by 7 points.

“Guys, it’s the middle of summer, it’s the doldrums, it’s the middle of the Olympics,” a senior adviser argued. “There has not been any national news, anything that would push these numbers from 3 to 9 points.”

The adviser pointed to no changes in Gallup or Rassmussen tracking numbers as evidence the other polls were wrong.

“You’ve got to have something to precipitate that kind of sea change,” the adviser said. “The attitudes toward the economy, attitudes on right direction, wrong track haven’t changed a bit. It hasn’t changed, it is still the same as it was a month ago in terms of attitudes toward the economy.”

The adviser added, “If you’re going to see change, we would have seen the change in Gallup and Rasmussen. Mark my words, there will be another couple of polls next week. People are not paying as much attention to this process. So I think the impact is just negligent.”

Asked about the large sums being spent on television advertisement in swing state markets — including the ads lashing Romney as a negligent and unfair businessman — and if that could be driving the poll numbers, the adviser said it was still too early in the process.

“You look at the ads and it’s basically pretty even in terms of spending on either side,” the adviser said. “I just don’t think people are paying that much attention.”

Aides also pointed to the upcoming GOP convention in Tampa as an opportunity for Romney to receive a significant bounce in his numbers. They said challengers typically get up to an 11-point bounce, compared to more well-known incumbents, who tend to see a bounce closer to 7 points — though they warned that such a bounce might be mitigated by the fact that the two parties conventions are coming so close to each other this year.