MICHIGAN — Over the weekend, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney began running a new 30-second ad in Ohio in which he argues that he, rather than President Barack Obama, will better serve the American auto industry—an effort, during the final days of the race, to put a new face on an issue that’s dogged his campaign since the primary. (A variation of the ad began airing on Ohio radio yesterday).

As the New York Times wrote yesterday:

With the race under most expected circumstances coming down to Ohio, and Ohio potentially coming down to perceptions of how the candidates view the auto industry, Mr. Romney has spent the last few days aggressively trying to undercut Mr. Obama’s auto bailout narrative.

While the ad in question didn’t air in Michigan, political journalists here—ground zero for the auto bailout—took swift notice. In a piece on Sunday, Todd Spangler, The Detroit Free Press’s Washington DC correspondent, right away provided key context missing in Romney’s ad. Here are Spangler’s second and third paragraphs:

In the ad, the Romney campaign also says that Jeep, now owned by Italian automaker Fiat after going through a structured bankruptcy in 2009, is going to make cars in China.

While true, that production would represent an expansion or return of jobs to China for Chrysler, not a transfer of North American jobs.

The loss of North American jobs is, as the New York Times put it yesterday, “the misleading impression” left by the ad. (Spangler could have made that point more emphatically, say, like this: “While true, that production would represent an expansion or return of jobs to China for Chrysler, not a transfer of North American jobs as the ad might lead viewers to conclude.”)

Spangler smartly drew attention to the significance of the ad playing in Ohio, which, after Michigan, “had more auto manufacturing jobs as of September than any other state.” He called the ad “risky,” as it follows closely on Romney erroneously telling a crowd in Defiance, Ohio, that he’d “seen a story…that one of the great manufacturers in this state, Jeep, now owned by Italians, is thinking of moving all production to China.” Spangler wrote: “Not only was the story wrong, Romney took criticism for not knowing better and repeating it without questioning it.” Spangler pointed to a Free Press story (with, happily, a link in the online version) about Chrysler adding a third shift and 1,100 jobs to Jeep production in Detroit, as well as Chrysler’s investment in a new Jeep plant in Toledo. The article appeared the same day as Romney’s Ohio speech.

The ad further attempts to boost Romney’s auto industry bona fides by citing endorsements for the candidate by former Chrysler head Lee Iococca and The Detroit News. Spangler pointed out that the Free Press endorsed Obama, and that “Iococca famously asked Congress for help for Chrysler in 1979-80 and repaid it ahead of schedule.” The irony here might’ve warranted a more explicit comparison with Romney’s position on the auto industry loans, but the context was welcome all the same.

The Detroit News, too, took a look Sunday at Romney’s Ohio ad in a piece written by David Shepardson. Unfortunately, the piece muddles as much (perhaps more, and certainly earlier along) than it clarifies. In Shepardson’s second paragraph, he repeats the ad’s narration: “Obama took GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy and sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to build Jeeps in China. Mitt Romney will fight for every American job.”

Anna Clark is CJR's correspondent for Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. A 2011 Fulbright fellow, Clark was written for The Guardian, Grantland and Salon; blogs at Isak; and can be found on Twitter @annaleighclark. She lives in Detroit.