Democrats cry foul at new Romney ad

TAMPA, Fla. - Mitt Romney is up with a new, unannounced ad in Ohio that has Democrats revving their engines.

The ad, which Democrats are calling "dishonest" and misleading, accuses the president of putting General Motors and Chrysler through bankruptcy and for selling Chrysler to Italian car company Fiat.

"Mitt Romney's new ad is a sure sign that he knows he's in trouble in Ohio," Obama campaign spokesperson Lis Smith said in a statement. "When the American auto industry and a million workers' jobs were on the line, Mitt Romney turned his back. Now he's pretending it never happened and is trying to scare Ohioans by repeating a blatant falsehood that Chrysler is moving its Jeep operations to China."

The Romney campaign did not respond to an e-mail for comment.

"Who will do more for the auto industry?" the male narrator asks over images of people driving cars.

"Not Barack Obama," the same voice concludes, before touting Romney's endorsement by Lee Iacocca, the former Chrysler chief executive officer who famously received a government bailout for his company in the 80s.

"Obama took GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy," the voice continues as images of cars getting crushed in a compactor appear on screen.

The ad fails to mention Romney's support of a managed bankruptcy for GM and Chrysler, crystallized in a New York Times op-ed he penned in 2008.

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Romney has also incorrectly suggested Chrysler was shifting
all Jeep production to china.

Chrysler is opening a Jeep manufacturing plant in
China to make Jeeps to be sold in China -- much like GM and Ford have for some of
their cars.

During a rally in Defiance, Ohio, Romney told supporters, "I saw a story today that one of the great manufacturers in this state, Jeep, now owned by the Italians, is thinking of moving all production to China. I will fight for every good job in America. I'm going to fight to make sure trade is fair, and if it's fair America will win."

The ad, seen airing in Toledo, a city in Northwest Ohio dependent on the auto industry, is aimed at hurting President Obama where many Ohioans credit him with his largest success: the auto bailout. It is unclear where else it will air.

Ads are usually provided to the press with a transcript ahead of their release, but this one was not.

Romney continues to trail in Ohio, a state central to his path to victory, largely because of his opposition to the auto bailout. The ad would seem an attempt to peel away or dissuade voters from the president.