Now, one of Mr. Romney's allies in the super PAC world plans to give some direct help. American Crossroads, a GOP-aligned political action committee, will begin an $8.8 million ad buy in nine states on Thursday to defend Mr. Romney from Democratic charges that he helped ship U.S. jobs overseas, said the PAC's president, Steven Law.
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The Crossroads ad marks a departure for it and most other outside political groups. Until now, they have spent most of their money on such themes as criticizing Mr. Obama for the rising federal deficit. But the new ad is the first from Crossroads to mention Mr. Romney explicitly, and in defending him it serves a role that candidates traditionally have filled themselves.
The new spot comes as some Republicans acknowledge that Mr. Obama's attack on Mr. Romney's career as a private-equity investor, now in its fourth week, has left the Republican candidate on the defensive and made it hard for him to advance his own message. Mr. Obama's accusations revolve around the idea that Mr. Romney, through his investments, aided companies that outsourced U.S. jobs to other countries, which the Romney campaign has vigorously denied.
"There are periods of time when you can tell the momentum is clearly with you. You can tell there are other times the message momentum is clearly with the other side," said Henry Barbour, a Romney fundraiser and Republican National Committeeman from Mississippi. "In the last week or two the momentum has shifted more towards Obama's attacks."
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Associated Press
Mitt Romney at a stop Wednesday in Bowling Green, Ohio. Combined with outside backers, he has been raising more than President Obama.
Mr. Barbour added he thinks Mr. Romney still is in a strong spot to win.
A Romney fundraiser said of the GOP candidate's campaign: "People would like to see improvement on the agility and speed of the responses."
Other Republicans say Mr. Romney in due time will define himself more fully to voters, particularly as the media spotlight turns to him in late August at the Republican National Convention. In addition, Mr. Romney's planned trip to London next week for the start of the Olympic Games gives him a chance to shift the public discussion to his role in managing the 2002 games in Salt Lake City. That could overtake the recent exchanges with Mr. Obama's campaign over his business career and questions of whether he should release more than the two years of tax returns he is making public.
The ad by American Crossroads, which was founded with the help of Bush White House aide Karl Rove, says of Mr. Obama: "The press, and even Democrats, say his attacks on Mitt Romney's business record are…'misleading, unfair and untrue,' '' according to a script provided by the group.
The ad underscores an important feature of how the race is being financed. Outside GOP committees, along with Mr. Romney's campaign, are raising more money than their opponent, and plan to outspend Democrats this week on TV by about 2.5-to-1, according to figures provided by Democratic and Republican media-tracking sources.
But in spending by the campaigns themselves, Mr. Obama is putting more money into TV ads currently. Mr. Obama will spend more than $9.4 million on ads in the coming week, compared with $6.6 million by Mr. Romney. Since the unofficial start of the general election in mid-April, Mr. Obama has outspent Mr. Romney by about 3 to 1.
Campaign officials have suggested that, in part, the disparity is due to the fact that much of Mr. Romney's money was raised under rules that limit its use to the general election, once he becomes the nominee. Mr. Obama is bound by the same restriction, but only Mr. Romney faced an expensive primary campaign that ate into money he was raising.
The campaign won't say what fraction of Mr. Romney's cash is so encumbered.
The Romney campaign says the Democrats set a more negative tone when Stephanie Cutter, Mr. Obama's deputy campaign manager, said last week Mr. Romney may have committed a felony if he inaccurately described his role at Bain Capital in government filings.
"They're saying they want a completely negative campaign with no rules, and the facts don't matter," said one adviser to the Romney campaign.
Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said, "Gov. Romney has pointed to his experience as a corporate buyout specialist as the central basis for his candidacy, yet at the same time tried to declare any examination of that record off-limits."
—Sara Murray contributed to this article.
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