Obama planning big ad campaign in Iowa, eight other states

Plan on seeing plenty of President Barack Obama this month, at least on television.

The president's re-election campaign said Monday it is spending $25 million in advertising this month, launching a new ad focusing on the economy in nine states, including Iowa.

The ad comes as a new poll shows the president and Republican Mitt Romney in nearly a dead heat in swing states across the country.

The ad seeks to make the case that the president led the country out of an economic morass and into a budding recovery. It notes the federal bailout of the auto industry and creation of 4.2 million jobs.

“We all remember where we were, and this ad speaks to it,” adviser David Axelrod told reporters on a conference call Monday.

The Obama campaign said the election is a choice between the president's way forward and Romney policies that it says are indistinguishable from the past.

“We've tested the theory, and it's failed,” Axelrod said.

The Romney campaign responded to the ad Monday.

“Americans will hear a lot from President Obama in the coming months, but what they won't hear from him is the fact that his policies have wreaked havoc on the middle class,” said Amanda Henneberg, a spokeswoman. “After a doubling of gas prices, declining incomes, millions of foreclosures and record levels of unemployment, Americans know they're not better off than they were four years ago. Mitt Romney's pro-growth agenda will get America back on track and stop the middle-class squeeze of the Obama economy.”

The Obama campaign declined to say in which markets the ad is running in Iowa.

Meanwhile, a new USA Today/Gallup poll says that Obama and Romney are in a statistical dead heat in the swing states, with the president at 47 percent and the former Massachusetts governor at 45 percent. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.

In late March, before Romney had become his party's presumptive nominee, Obama led by nine percentage points in the swing state poll.

The survey says Democrats are more excited about Obama than Republicans are about Romney. It also said the president led among women, 52 percent to 40 percent. Men favored Romney, 52-40, according to the poll.

Romney had a slight edge in voter opinions about who best would handle the economy, with Romney leading 47-44.

Republican officials have pointed to their longer-than-expected primary and say they expect their party will come together by Election Day. They also say the president's core constituencies are less motivated and excited about him than they were in 2008.

The president's campaign, in the ad, acknowledges that people still are hurting economically. They also say they won't shy away from talking about Romney's record, including on the economy. Axelrod said Massachusetts went from 37th to 47th in job creation when Romney was governor and wages dropped.