Obama begins outsourcing battle, Romney and the RNC fire back with website

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After President Barack Obama hit GOP challenger Mitt Romney with attacks on his business record and claims of outsourcing, the Republican National Committee struck back Tuesday with the launch of a new website, obamanomicsoutsourced.com.

The outsourcing issue first began with a Washington Post article published June 21, which claimed that Mitt Romney's financial company, Bain Capital, invested in firms that specialized in relocating jobs to countries like China and India.

The Obama campaign quickly jumped on the report, citing it in ads, interviews and campaign speeches.

"The Washington Post reports that as CEO, Mitt Romney advised companies that were 'pioneers' in outsourcing jobs overseas," barakobama.com said. "As governor, Romney drew from the same playbook and outsourced state jobs. And today, Romney has proposed eliminating all taxes on companies' foreign profits — which would actually encourage companies to send jobs overseas."

"Mitt Romney's not the solution," one Obama ad said. "He's the problem."

"Mitt Romney's companies were pioneers in outsourcing U.S. jobs to low-wage countries," another ad said. "He supports tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. President Obama believes in insourcing."

"Does Iowa really want an outsourcer-in-chief in the White House?" a third ad asked.

"As a corporate raider, (Romney) shipped jobs to China and Mexico," a fourth ad said. "As governor he did the same thing, outsourcing state jobs to India."

Three ads cite the Washington Post article, but the Washington Post's fact checker said the Obama campaign is wrongly defining what the article said.

"The actual article, in fact, does not say that transfers of U.S. jobs took place while Romney ran the private equity firm of Bain Capital," the fact check said. "The campaign clearly seized on this report because their interpretation fit with a long-term 'outsourcing' attack they have waged against Romney. One of their outsourcing ads before the article ran, in fact, earned Four Pinocchios. These new ads would not fare much better; there is little in the Post article that backs up the Obama campaign's spin."

FactCheck.org said that after reviewing corporate filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, news accounts, company histories and press releases and the evidence offered by both political campaigns, there is no evidence to support Obama's claim that Romney helped ship American jobs overseas while at Bain Capital.

After the Obama campaign complained about FactCheck.org's analysis, FactCheck.org released another post saying the Obama campaign's evidence of Romney's outsourcing is "weak or non-existent, and contrary to statements Romney has made on official disclosure forms under pain of federal prosecution."

National press secretary for the Obama campaign Ben LaBolt again cited the Washington Post article during a July 10 appearance on MSNBC, dismissing the FactCheck.org posts and saying the fact checker must not read The Washington Post.

On Tuesday, weeks after the outsourcing attacks began, the Republican National Committee launched obamanomicsoutsourced.com, which highlights stimulus projects and where money was sent.

"As (Obama) racked up trillions in new debt, billions of dollars did go to create jobs that were outsourced or spent overseas," the site said. "Whether is it electric cars made in Finland or solar panels in Mexico, taxpayers would be astonished to learn that their hard-earned money went abroad for jobs that weren't created in the United States."