Mitt Romney: Actually, I Did a Heck of a Job as the Governor of MA

On Friday, Team Romney unveiled a new campaign ad touting his leadership credentials and defending his record as the governor of Massachusetts.

In other words, the former Massachusetts governor (a) balanced the budget four years in a row without raising taxes and (b) reduced the Bay State unemployment rate to 4.7 percent. These are two laudable achievements. President Obama, by contrast, has presided over four consecutive trillion-dollar deficits and -- lest we forget -- unemployment remains above 8 percent. This is his record. Sure, Obama supporters will continue to push the Democratic talking point that Massachusetts “fell” to 47th nationwide in job creation under Romney's watch. However, as fact checkers recently pointed out, that’s simply not true.

Massachusetts’ state ranking for job growth went from 50th the year before he took office, to 28th in his final year. It was 47th for the whole of his four-year tenure, but it was improving, not declining, when he left.

The president and his surrogates, of course, will continue to distort Mitt Romney’s record and question his integrity. Remember this? For that reason, I think it’s important for him to set the record straight as early as possible -- as he does in this ad -- before it’s too late.