Capital New York

The Obama campaign released a new ad this morning highlighting Mitt Romney's relatively low tax rate, as part of its ongoing effort to paint Mitt Romney as an out-of-touch millionaire.

In addition to the standard smirking shots of Romney, there's another shot that reporters noticed at the time, of him arriving in Las Vegas for a high-profile fund-raiser with Donald Trump, with Trump's plane conspicuously parked in the background. 

The ad also uses the imprimatur of the Wall Street Journal to drive home a study released yesterday saying the Romney plan could raise middle class tax rates. The ad puts the Journal logo over a headline from one of its blog's yesterday: "Study: Romney Tax Plan Hits Middle Class."

It's something of a shift from the tax-related ads the Obama campaign was running last month, when Democrats were relentlessly pressuring Romney to release more of his returns, and questioning his holdings in some foreign tax havens.

Whether the Obama campaign can recapture that momentum—several Republican leaders were publicly urging Romney to defang the issue and release more returns—remains to be seen, now that the focus has shifted to Romney's foreign trip and upcoming vice presidential pick.

Reid Pillifant

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