Mitt Romney’s new ad turns from Obama to fiscal issues

Mitt Romney has ditched President Obama in favor of some red meat for fiscally conscious New Hampshire voters in his latest campaign ad (see video below).

The new 30-second spot that launched Wednesday quotes Romney from a September debate on the need to rein in federal spending.

“We’re not going to balance the budget just by pretending that all they have to do is take out the waste. We’re going to have to cut spending,” he says. “The right answer for America is to stop the growth of the federal government and to start the growth of the private sector.”

Romney made his debut on the New Hampshire airwaves last week with an ad that used Obama’s words at a 2008 campaign event -- some out of context -- to make the case that he had failed voters.

But as polls indicate a tightening GOP contest, Romney’s second offering is a more direct appeal to primary voters.

It leads with Romney saying he has spent his life “in the private sector,” something that echoed the attack on Newt Gingrich as a “lifelong politician” that he made in a Fox News interview Tuesday.

That interview included a number of tense exchanges between Romney and Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier over the GOP frontrunner’s past positions and alleged policy reversals, which were featured in a new Democratic attack ad this week.

“This is an unusual interview,” Romney said at one point.

The Democratic National Committee has another word to describe it -- “disastrous,” according to this new web video highlighting negative reaction to it.

Romney’s ad will air on New Hampshire’s WMUR-TV through next week, National Journal’s Hotline reported.