Selective Editing? New Romney Ad Bashing Obama Called 'Deceitful

When you first watch the new Mitt Romney ad set to air in New Hampshire, you may be moved by the flashbacks of Barack Obama making some big promises and even embarrassing statements on the economy.

"I am confident that we can steer ourselves out of this crisis," Obama says in the ad as ominous music plays in the background.

"It's going to take a new direction," he adds.

Then this bombshell plays: "If we keep talking about the economy, we're going to lose."

Wow. Compelling? You decide:

But there's just one problem: sure, Barack Obama said that, but he didn't really "say" that.

See, the snippet used in the Romney ad referencing talking about the economy being a losing plan was actually from a campaign stop where Obama was quoting a John McCain staffer in 2008.

As HuffPo points out, here's what Obama really said: "Senator McCain's campaign actually said, and I quote, 'If we keep talking about the economy, we're going to lose.'"

So did the ad use selective editing? The Obama camp thinks so. The president's reelection campaign spokesman Ben Labolt told HuffPo the Romney ad is "a deceitful and dishonest attack."

But what about Romney's team? Not so much. They have come out defending the ad and its editing, noting that they are just using the president's tactic against him. They point to a blog post on Romney's website (called Tables Turned) accompanying the new ad that notes the quote was Obama mocking McCain.

"Three years ago, candidate Barack Obama mocked his opponent’s campaign for saying 'if we keep talking about the economy, we're going to lose.' Now, President Obama’s campaign is desperate not to talk about the economy."

That's a fair point. But it's worth adding that viewers of the TV ad don't have the luxury of reading a blog post when it flashes across their televisions.

All that said, the ad could have other problems. According to Gawker, "it manages to encapsulate, in the span of one minute, the entire Romney 'brand': boring, wrong, nonspecific and slightly dishonest."

What do you think?