Romney using Obama's own words to attack

Former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney launched a presidential campaign television ad in New Hampshire this week, using Barack Obama's own words to try to undermine him in the Granite State.

The 60-second ad begins with clips of Obama telling New Hampshire crowds during the race before the 2008 election that he would turn the economy around if elected president. During Obama's words Romney's ad gives reminders of his broken promises and America's failed economy:

"He promised he would fix the economy… He failed.

Greatest jobs crisis since the Great Depression.

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Record home foreclosures.

Record national debt."

Then Romney highlights his plans to make that different:

"I'm going to do something to government," he said. "I call it the smaller, simpler, smarter approach to government ‒ getting rid of programs, turning programs back to states and finally, making government itself more efficient," he said.

He says he'll get rid of Obamacare because, "It's killing jobs and it's keeping our kids from having the bright prospects they deserve." He challenges Obama's "overspending."

"We have a moral responsibility not to spend more than we take in," Romney reminds New Hampshire voters. "I'll make sure that America is a job-creating machine like it has been in the past. It’s high time to bring those principles of fiscal responsibility to Washington, D.C."

Romney in this instance is looking over the top of his competition for the GOP nomination and aiming at the candidate he hopes to face for the 2012 vote.

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"The contrast between what he said and what he did is so stark, people will recognize we really do need to have someone new lead this country," Romney told Fox News.

In a late poll, Romney leads GOP hopeful Newt Gingrich 29 percent to 27 percent in New Hampshire.

"I want people to remember that when he was candidate Obama, that he said he was going to get this economy going, he was going to bring people together, be a real leader for change in America," Romney explains. "Clearly, the president can't run on his track record. His track record is miserable."

He also said he expects a backlash in the form of attacks from Obama.

"So what he'll do is try and assassinate, on a character basis, his opponents and/or his opposition," Romney said. "I'm hoping that's me, but I'm not looking forward to those attacks."

And Romney is full aware of attacks, particularly on his moral and religious beliefs, in this year's GOP showdown.

Missing last weekend's Iowa Thanksgiving Family Forum, Romney came under attack from other Republican presidential contenders. It was the second Christian gathering he missed over the past two months. Romney was absent from last month's Faith and Freedom Coalition in Iowa, where approximately 1,000 conservative Christians came together, and he is now under new scrutiny.

"Clearly this was a forum that Mitt Romney was not particularly comfortable with," former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum told CNN, referring to the former Massachusetts governor's Mormon beliefs and uncertain positions on social and moral issues.

"It was one that was longer form and one that was much more personal, much more reflective of where you've been and where you're going, as opposed to just talking about the future in sound bites ... I don't think that played to Gov. Romney's strengths," he said.

Santorum and five other GOP candidates attended the Iowa forum hosted by the conservative group, The Family Leader. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann were the other competitors who attended.

The host of the forum, key Iowa conservative Bob Vander Plaats, didn't let Romney's absence slip through the cracks, saying that he was "the only one who stiffed us."

"I think that's gone with his persona and how he's treating, Iowa, which happens to be a swing state," Vander Plaats told ABC News. "And he wants to win the presidency, which tells me that he lacks judgment. And if he lacks judgment, I think people all across America have to say, 'Is he the right candidate?'"

Romney noted his campaign has "had a couple of events in Iowa. … I've been there several times; I'll be there this coming week. I've said from the very beginning we intend to play in Iowa and I want to do very well there."

But he's also aware of the controversy stirred by his beliefs, which were described by First Baptist Church of Dallas Pastor Robert Jeffress as a cult.