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Romney's welfare ad aims to drive a wedge between Obama and Clinton

Mitt Romney's new welfare ad incorrectly claims that Obama is breaking with Clinton's welfare reform philosophy.

Mitt Romney's new welfare ad incorrectly claims that Obama is breaking with Clinton's welfare reform philosophy. According to msnbc contributor Jonathan Alter, it's all part of an attempt to distance Obama from the former president.

"He's trying to drive a wedge between Clinton and Obama, to say to a certain kind of voter who liked Clinton that Clinton wasn't the type of liberal that Obama is," Alter said. The problem for Romney, he suggested, is that there's no difference between Clinton and Obama on this issue. "[The administration is] not doing anything to weaken the work requirement, much less gut welfare requirement."


It is not the first time Romney has set up Clinton as the kind of Democratic president he likes, one far less extreme than Obama. A Romney ad criticizes Obama for not having visited Israel, in contrast to Clinton. The problem was that George W. Bush didn't visit Israel in his first term, either.

Additionally, in May, Romney suggested that Obama has created more government programs than Clinton did, and is more fond of government generally. In fact, government spending has plummeted during the Obama administration.