The third spot is titled, simply, "Ohio Jobs." It features Romney looking straight at the camera to talk to voters from the Midwestern battleground state seen as critical to his White House hopes. Obama was also campaigning in Ohio on Friday.
Obama's team countered with an ad targeting Romney's tax plan, accusing him of planning to raise taxes on the middle class. The ad was airing in seven battleground states.
Romney planned a rally later in the day in St. Petersburg, Fla., kicking off a weekend of campaigning in that state, the largest of the prized battlegrounds. Obama was holding a Friday rally in Cleveland before heading to California on Sunday for a fundraising spree that will include a concert in Los Angeles featuring Jon Bon Jovi, Katy Perry and Stevie Wonder.
Traveling aboard Air Force One, White House senior adviser David Plouffe foreshadowed an intense focus on Ohio in the coming weeks, where polls have shifted in Obama's favor. No Republican has won the presidency without winning Ohio, and Obama's campaign sees blocking Romney there as one of its best paths to victory.
Plouffe said the true measure of the first debate was whether it moved voters in the battleground states. Speaking of Romney, Plouffe said: "Is he going to take the lead in Ohio? If he doesn't, he's not going to be president," he said.
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Associated Press writer Steve Peoples in Virginia contributed to this report.
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