Obama campaign tries to keep heat on Romney over outsourcing ad

President Obama’s campaign is launching a second television spot challenging what it says are Mitt Romney’s misleading ads about the auto industry outsourcing jobs from Ohio to China, this time saying the Romney ad speaks to “character.”

The new ad highlights statements from fact checkers and leaders of General Motors and Chrysler disputing the Romney spot, which suggested the auto companies were moving jobs to China during Obama’s tenure.

The new Obama ad closely echoes one his campaign released on Monday, noting that auto companies have actually added jobs in Ohio in recent years.

“We know the truth, Mitt,” the ad reads as it shows a clip of Romney reciting the headline from the Op-Ed article he wrote that has come to haunt him: “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.”

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Romney campaign spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg responded that “President Obama can’t run from the facts. As a result of his handling of the auto bailout, American taxpayers stand to lose $25 billion and GM and Chrysler are expanding their production overseas. Unlike President Obama, Mitt Romney has a comprehensive plan to revive manufacturing, create millions of good-paying jobs, and deliver real change and a real recovery.”

The new Obama campaign ad suggests that it is eager to point out and capitalize on Romney’s much-publicized and late play for autoworkers in the battleground state. Romney’s ad is not only misleading, the Obama campaign argued, it speaks to his integrity.

“This raises a character issue,” Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

The Obama ad is running in Ohio and Michigan, the campaign said. Michigan is one of a few states that has seen a late flow of campaign spending, despite polling that seems to show the president with a considerable lead. A Detroit Free Press survey released this week showed Obama leading Romney by 6 percentage points.

Still, Romney allies have begun spending heavily in Michigan, and the Obama campaign is spending money to rebut their claims.

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Kathleen.hennessey@latimes.com

twitter.com/@khennessey