ABC's Klein: Commercial Featuring Converted Obama Voters Sends 'Powerful Message'

Three center-left mainstream media reporters on Fox News’ “On The Record” Thursday praised an Ending Spending Action fund commercial featuring voters who voted for Obama in 2008 and will vote for Romney in 2012.

Rick Klein, ABC News’ Senior Political Editor who makes regular appearances on “On The Record,” said the commercial had a “potentially powerful message” that gives an “invitation to former Obama voters” who may not hate Obama to vote for Romney.

Klein said this is a sentiment the Romney campaign would have liked to have tapped into months ago and astutely observed the women in the commercials had Midwestern accents.

The ad features women like “Jodi C” from Illinois who voted for Obama and said she had “huge hopes” but got “burned” in 2008. The women voted in the past for Bill Clinton and Al Gore, but all are voting for Romney in 2012 because they are concerned with the debt and disappointed with Obama.

Ending Spending Action Fund, the super PAC started by Joe Ricketts, the founder of TD Ameritrade, to put a spotlight on the country’s debt and wasteful spending, launched a $10 million advertisement campaign to run these commercials in the key swing states of Virginia, Colorado, Ohio, and Iowa. All four of these states went to Obama in 2008, mainly because voters like the independents and Reagan Democrats featured in the commercials voted for Obama. 

Klein noted that this is an ad pro-Obama PACs could not run because there are not that many voters who voted for McCain in 2008 who are on the fence in 2012. 

Michael Crowley of Time Magazine said the Romney campaign believes these undecided voters will break toward their candidate in the end and these ads are trying to tell them they don’t need to feel about voting for Obama in 2008 but can vote against him in 2012 because he is “in over his head.”

He cautioned, though, that John Kerry’s campaign thought the same dynamic would occur in 2004 and voters, in the end, did not break toward him as greatly as the campaign had hoped. 

Justin Sink of The Hill said the commercial highlights the “disappointment and disenchantment” many Obama 2008 voters have with Obama. 

Van Susteren also noted the ad was also an effort to get women voters. The women featured in the commercial — like “Jodi C” — speak directly to women voters who voted for Obama in 2008 and are not as enthusiastic about his candidacy in 2012. 

Stephen K. Bannon, who directed the movie “The Hope and the Change,” which featured disaffected independents and Reagan Democrats who voted for Obama in 2008 and will not vote for him in 2012, directed the commercials. The commercials use a similar template to “The Hope and the Change” movie. 

Romney still has to sell his vision and candidacy to seal the deal with voters who are still on the fence. But these commercials give such voters more of a reason to give Romney a chance, which is something even the mainstream press conceded.