Obama pitches plan for second term in new ad

BOCA RATON, Fla. — President Obama delivers a closing message to voters in a new television ad touting progress over the last four years and sketching the outline of his plan for a new term.

The 60-second spot, which begins with a montage of sunny American scenes and continues with Obama speaking directly to the camera, is part homage to Ronald Reagan’s “Morning in America” message and part a reaction to Mitt Romney’s criticism — reflected in some public polling — that the current incumbent has failed to offer voters details about how his next four years.

“There’s just no quit in America. And you’re seeing that right now,” Obama says. “We’re not there yet, but we’ve made real progress and the last thing we should do is turn back now.”

Obama then offers a broad overview of his plan, as the cover of a new glossy document entitled “The New Economic Patriotism: A Plan for Jobs & Middle-Class Security” appears on screen. The campaign says a printed version of the blueprint will be shared with voters in the final 14 days of the campaign, and Obama himself will hold it up during a post-debate rally in Delray Beach, Fla., on Tuesday.

“Read my plan, compare it to Gov. Romney’s and decide which is better for you,” Obama says. “It’s an honor to be your president, and I’m asking for your vote so together we can keep moving America forward.”

The ad will air in nine states: New Hampshire, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin, Nevada, Iowa and Colorado.

In total, 3.5-million copies of the plan will be distributed through a “full-scale, multiplatform organizational effort.”

“The president, vice president, and all of our surrogates will hold up the plan at events and ask our massive grass-roots network to do everything they can to share the plan with their family, friends, neighbors, co-workers and others to reach every undecided voter in the remaining days of this election,” a campaign aide said.

Even with the new messaging effort, the Obama campaign is walking a fine line. The plan “reiterates his concrete and specific second-term plan,” the campaign says, adding that the policies he’s outlining are the same ones he laid out in his “State of the Union” speech in January and amplify the goals he set out in his convention speech.

A website that the new ad directs voters to also features an earlier Obama ad, this one a two-minute spot that aired in swing states last month, in which the president answers his own question, “What’s my plan?”

Republicans described the new Obama push as a last-gasp effort to “reframe” the debate and an admission that the president has failed to lay out a second-term vision up until now.

“To those 62% of voters who want the president to make major changes in a second term — don’t get your hopes up,” the Republican National Committee said an a morning email.

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michael.memoli@latimes.com

Twitter: @mikememoli