Something Old, Something New In Summertime Attack Ads

Something Old, Something New In Summertime Attack Ads

August 7, 2012 -- ANALYSIS: With just over 90 days to go in the 2012 presidential contest, there's no rest for the weary swing state voter.

Every day the campaigns and their allies are churning out new volleys of attacks. The latest round comes today from Priorities USA Action, the super PAC supporting President Obama that has spent the vast majority of its time — and money — attacking Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital.

The group is at it again, this time with a powerful, new ad featuring a steel company worker who lost his job and his health plan after Bain closed the Kansas City plant where he worked. Unable to provide health care for his family, the employee, Joe Soptic, lost his wife to cancer.

"I do not think Mitt Romney realizes what he's done to anyone," Soptic says in the minute-long spot. "Furthermore, I do not think Mitt Romney is concerned."

The ad is the fifth in a $20 million flight on Romney's Bain record produced by Priorities USA Action, ABC's Devin Dwyer notes.

Get more pure politics at ABC News.com/Politics and a lighter take on the news at OTUSNews.com

The Romney campaign, meanwhile, is taking a back-to-the-future approach with a new line of attack aimed squarely at what they say is President Obama's failure to keep the promises of the 1996 welfare reform legislation ushered in during the Clinton administration.

"Recently, the Obama administration issued an executive action to dismantle welfare and its work requirements," said Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul. "His actions may energize his dispirited liberal base, but they are an insult not only to those on welfare, but also to the millions of taxpayers struggling in today's economy, working more for less."

The campaign is also out with a new television ad backing up their message.

"On July 12th, President Obama quietly announced a plan to gut welfare reform by dropping work requirements," the ad's narrator says. "Under Obama's plan, you wouldn't have to work and wouldn't have to train for a job. They just send you your welfare check."

Bain is back for the Democrats and welfare reform is on the table for Republicans as both sides push their pre-convention messages.