August 06, 2012 07:31 PM UTC

Obama Gives Romney The "Ken Buck Special"

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Hill, though you’ve probably already seen it this weekend:

President Obama’s campaign on Saturday unveiled a new television ad airing in key swing states, which hits GOP candidate Mitt Romney over Planned Parenthood funding and contraception.

The ad is the latest in a series of web and TV blasts as Obama and Democratic allies have sought to bolster their already strong lead among female voters and push back against GOP efforts against public funding for abortion and an administration birth-control mandate…

“Dishonest political attacks will not change the fact that President Obama has not turned around the economy, and his policies have hurt women and families all over the country,” [Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul] added.

Romney has said he would “get rid” of Planned Parenthood if elected and that he opposes the administration birth control ruling.

We haven’t seen any fact-checker analysis of this ad yet, but we’re not sure what can be specifically called out here as “dishonest.” Which is still another parallel to the 2010 U.S. Senate race in Colorado between Democrat Michael Bennet and GOP nominee Ken Buck, the simple fact that these primary-era statements from Mitt Romney are problematic to his general election campaign–especially the key demographic of suburban women voters.

Buck’s narrow loss to Bennet in a GOP-trending election has been chiefly attributed to his 17-point defeat among women, which stemmed from Buck’s toxic stands on women’s issues. Buck’s infamous “I don’t believe in the exception for cases of rape and incest” line during the primary set him on a course of alienation from women voters from which he never recovered. And nobody was “dishonest” in reporting what Buck had volunteered unbidden.

Fast-forward to 2012…