Obama launches 9-state, $25M ad campaign

EUCLID, Ohio -- Targeting middle-class voters, President Barack Obama Monday unveiled a sweeping $25 million, nine-state ad campaign whose centerpiece is a commercial portraying him as the steward of an economic comeback and confronting Republican criticism that recovery has sputtered on his watch.

"We're not there yet," the ad says. "It's still too hard, for too many. But we're coming back. Because America's greatness comes from a strong middle class. Because you don't quit, and neither does he."

Countering from hard-hit Ohio, Republican Mitt Romney argued that Obama's policies are squeezing middle-income Americans and that his business background could help jump-start the economy. "The president and I have fairly different visions for what it'll take to get America working again," the former Massachusetts governor said.

The competing economic visions are shaping a White House race that new surveys suggest is competitive six months before Election Day. A poll of voters in a dozen swing states by USA Today and Gallup found Obama and Romney essentially even among registered voters -- Obama 47 percent, Romney 45 percent.

Just weeks old, the Obama-Romney race is playing out in a country in which unemployment is hovering around 8 percent and where many voters are not feeling growth that economists insist is occurring.

Obama is tapping into a campaign bank account of more than $100 million to pay for his big opening salvo in the TV ad wars while Romney is relying on outside groups -- like the pro-Romney Restore Our Future super PAC -- to keep him competitive on the air against Obama's campaign.