Mitt Romney’s campaign is up with a new web video about Allentown Metal Works, a Pennsylvania factory that closed up shop after President Obama visited it in 2009 to tout his economic agenda.
Romney has focused like a laser on the country’s high unemployment in recent months, making the heavily disputed claim that the White House’s policies made the recession even worse. He’s scheduled to speak in Allentown today.
Video after the jump:
Former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell (D) responded to Romney’s attack in a conference call with reporters on Thursday, saying the use of the plant was a “cheap shot.”
“The fact that they closed had nothing to do with president’s policies,” he said.
Rendell defended the stimulus as a jobs boon for the state, noting the steel industry in particular benefited from its infrastructure investments with increased orders.
“In May our unemployment rate was 7.4%, 1.7% better than the national average of 9.1% and the lowest of any large industrial state,” he said. “That wasn’t an accident, it came from investments.”
Benjy Sarlin
Benjy Sarlin is a reporter for Talking Points Memo and co-writes the campaign blog, TPM2012. He previously reported for The Daily Beast/Newsweek as their Washington Correspondent and covered local politics for the New York Sun.