Romney aides invited reporters to their campaign headquarters for a background briefing on the Republican presidential candidate's upcoming bus tour which will roll through the battleground states of Virginia, North Carolina, Florida and Ohio over the next four days.

"In 2008 these states were all won by Obama but this time around his support has eroded considerably," said Senior Advisor Eric Fehrnstrom. "Even though his team is pouring tons of resources into these states, the bad economy continues to hang over Obama like a dark cloud."

The briefing however quickly turned into an intense assault on what the Romney team sees as distortions coming from President Obama.

"You've all witnessed the Obama campaign's desperate tactics. They've gone from what started as petty distortions and untruths to unbelievable exaggerations that diminish the office of the president and insult the American people," said Fehrnstrom. "I don't think a world champion limbo dancer could get any lower than the Obama campaign right now. In the process Obama has squandered what has always been one of his key attributes, that he was a different kind of politician who was going to take us to a better place. Obama said he was going to change the tone in Washington, and he has done that. He's taken us from bad to worse"...