Obama takes new swipe at Romney record

US: President Barack Obama's camp took aim at Mitt Romney's governorship of Massachusetts Wednesday, saying his "disastrous" tenure resulted in fewer jobs and more debt but left the wealthy better off.

The offensive came as a report suggested that Romney's allies in big business could pour $1 billion into the campaign to beat Obama and his Democrats in November, leaving the president at a steep financial disadvantage.

Obama's political advisor David Axelrod dissected Romney's record in Massachusetts between 2003 and 2007 in a campaign memo, five months before an election polls suggest will be tight and won in a few key states.

It was the latest effort by the president's team to negatively define Romney's past record for voters and to focus November's vote on the character of the challenger and not Obama's own vulnerabilities on the economy.

The assault follows Obama's bid to puncture Romney's claim that his business experience fits him to turn around the US economy, by focusing on a previous career as a venture capitalist which made him a multi-millionaire.

"Mitt Romney applied the economic philosophy he learned in the private sector to disastrous results as governor of Massachusetts," Axelrod wrote. "Now he's making the same promises he made when he was running for governor. We've seen this all before.

"It's the same formula that benefited a few, but crashed our economy in the first place and undermined security for the middle class. Massachusetts couldn't afford Romney Economics, and neither can the American economy." Romney has not dwelt much on governorship, apparently because Massachusetts is a liberal state reviled by conservatives who select the Republican nominee.

He is also known for a health care reform which was used as the model for Obama's signature medical insurance overhaul which Republicans have pledged to overturn.

Axelrod said that under Romney, Massachusetts plunged from 36th to 47th out of 50 states in job creation, and despite promises to the contrary raised taxes and fees on middle class families and small businesses. AFP