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Past promises

While Governor Mitt Romney's campaign struggles to define the specifics of its policies for America's future, President Obama could face some tough questions ab
Past promises
Past promises

While Governor Mitt Romney's campaign struggles to define the specifics of its policies for America's future, President Obama could face some tough questions about his past. Today Karl Rove's Super PAC American Crossroads unleashed its largest ad buy of this cycle -- it includes $11 million to run the ad below in eight swing states. Titled "Actually Happened," the ad claims, "This is what President Obama said the jobless rate would be if we passed the stimulus: 5.6%. But this is what the jobless rate actually is: 8.1%." As our friends at First Read point out, the attack is misleading because President Obama never promised 5.6% unemployment. According to FactCheck.org, that figure comes from a "speculative report at the beginning of Obama’s presidency" which noted several times there was "substantial uncertainty around all of our estimates" because of the recession.


Aside from the dubious American Crossroads line of criticism, there are some statements made in President Obama's first term that could cause him trouble in the debates. Politico writes today about ten promises made by President Obama that could come back to haunt him: One of those is a vow to tackle comprehensive immigration reform in his first year. That said, it hasn't seemed to hurt him among Latinos in this election so far, as a new poll out today shows the President at an all-time high of 73% support from Hispanic voters nationally.

Check out the video below to see what Alex Wagner and our panel think about which past promises could be landmines for the President tomorrow night: