Romney's New Target: Obama's 'Political Payoffs'

With political chatter centered on Mitt Romney's Bain record, the candidate is ready to fight back: "We're turning the page," says an adviser. So get ready for a new offensive, dubbed "Obama's Political Payoffs and Middle-Class Layoffs." The Romney tactic aims to demonstrate how the president has given big donors a leg up. Acting as a "typical politician," Romney ads will say, Obama showed "systematic favoritism" to some 200 of these backers, offering them major appointments and supporting their firms with federal cash, reports the Washington Post.

"If you’re a political donor to Barack Obama, you’re going to do fine, because you’re going to get a payoff. If you’re a middle-class worker, you’re in jeopardy, you’re facing a layoff," quipped Romney adviser Ed Gillespie yesterday. The campaign, which starts today, will spotlight Obama's "favoritism" toward much-discussed companies like Solyndra and Fisker Automotive, as well as less discussed firms like Westly Group, a venture capital firm founded by a major Obama bundler whose portfolio companies got lots of stimulus assistance from the Energy Department. For its part, the Obama campaign calls the attacks "false" and warns that they'll "only boomerang on [Romney's] record of cronyism in Massachusetts and the Olympics." (More President Obama stories.)