The Obama campaign has turned his sights on Romney's business background, casting the former Bain Capital executive as a money-hungry "vampire" in a new ad that will air in five battleground states.

The video features employees at a Kansas City steel factory who lost their jobs during after a Bain acquisition. This ad is the latest attempt by the Obama campaign to turn Romney's business credentials into a liability.

"It was like a vampire," said one of the men in the ad. "They came in and sucked the life out of us."

Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said their campaign welcomed the "attempt to pivot back to jobs and a discussion of their failed record, ABC reported. 

A 2-minute version of the 6-minute video will air in Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Virginia. This maneuver by the Obama campaign is reminiscent of a tactic used by Newt Gingrich earlier this year. Gingrich's campaign released a 30-minute video, "When Mitt Romney Came to Town," which portrayed the presidential candidate as a corporate raider who was unsympathetic to workers' plight, according to the BBC. 

Some defend Bain's record, however, as risk is inherent in capital ventures.

From Fortune:

If Bain is going to be blamed for what happened after selling its stake, should it also get credit for the current thriving businesses of both Dade (now owned by Siemens) and Stage Stores (SSI)? Or can Romney claim credit for all those Staples (SPLS) jobs created long after he and Bain were involved with the company?

As a broader point, it's interesting that the Stephanie Cutter went out of her way to say that no one "is questioning private equity as a whole." Kind of mirroring a similar message from campaign boss Jim Messina said back in February. But it's not really true, is it?

Bain is being accused here of taking actions that are commonplace in private equity. So if it's "legitimate to question whether those are the values America needs in a president," then it's apparently legitimate to question whether private equity is consistent with American values. Pretty sure that's a broad brush masquerading as a razor blade.