Romney, Obama bemoan attack ads — but both benefit

PUEBLO, Colo. — Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama both deplored the pervasive presence of televised attack ads in the race for the White House on Thursday, though neither acknowledged being helped as well as harmed. Each blamed his foe.

Romney went first, saying of the president’s campaign, “They just blast ahead” with ads that have been judged false by independent fact checkers.

“I don’t know whatever happened to a campaign of ‘hope and change,”’ he said, a mocking reference to the spirit of optimism that Obama evoked during his successful run for the White House in 2008.

Obama ignored the slap. He told an audience in Colorado that “over the next three months, you will see more negative ads,” and he suggested the blame lies with outside groups backing his rival.

Read More. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)