Obama and Romney Exchange Fire in Attack Ads

While there are five months to go until the 2012 presidential election, the gloves are coming off as Barack Obama and Mitt Romney hit the airwaves and go online to rip into each other.

On Tuesday, the Obama team launched a new television ad hitting the airwaves in key battleground states -- including Florida -- that attacks Romneys record during his tenure as governor of Massachusetts. The ad attempts to play a little political jujitsu, taking Romneys attacks and turning them against him, slamming the Republicans record on running up government debt and on job creation.

Besides Florida, the ad is running in eight other states that Obama carried in 2008 but that Romney is looking to pick up in November: Colorado, Iowa, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

But the Romney camp is hitting Obama back in video attacks of their own.

Earlier in the week, the Romney camp took aim at Obama for saying that the private sector was doing fine despite the continuing economic slowdown. The Romney team released a Web video contrasting Obamas statement with accounts from Americans who have been hit hard by the economic downturn.

The Romney camp followed up with another video released Monday which bashes Obama on unemployment. This Web video notes that the national unemployment rate went up to 8.2 percent while then adding the clip of Obama insisting the private sector is doing fine.