Political Theater

Democrats are calling Mitt Romney “dishonest”and “a serial deceiver” after the release of a new Romney campaign ad that quotes Obama out of context. The ad, which attacks Obama’s record on the economy, splices together comments Obama made in New Hampshire in 2008, including this one: “If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.”

The only problem is that Obama was actually quoting someone else — an aide to John McCain. Obama’s full quote was: “Senator McCain’s campaign actually said, and I quote, ‘If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.’”

Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom told Politico that the campaign meant to selectively quote Obama; his words were “intentionally” trimmed, Fehrnstrom said, in order to “show that President Obama is doing exactly what he criticized McCain of doing four years ago.”

Watch the ad here (h/t CBS News and Politico):