President Obama has taken his "outsourcer-in-chief" argument against Mitt Romney to the airwaves.

A series of state-specific ads spotlights a recent Washington Post story that says Romney's private-equity firm, Bain Capital, invested in companies that pioneered the art of outsourcing jobs to low-wage countries.

"Does Virginia really want an outsourcer-in-chief in the White House?" says an ad airing today in the Old Dominion.

Similar ads will air in two other swing states, Ohio and Iowa, according to the Obama campaign.

Obama has raised the outsourcing issue himself in recent days on the campaign trail.

Romney aides called the Post story misleading. Some Bain-backed companies did outsource services to other people, just as the Obama campaign and other firms do, but they did not "offshore" jobs to other countries.

Romney spokesman Ryan Williams said, "with the worst record on jobs and the economy of any president in modern history, President Obama knows he has no compelling case to make for a second term. That's why he continues to use false and discredited attacks to divert attention from his abysmal economic record."