BY WESLEY P. HESTER

President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign is swinging back at attacks on his comment that “the private sector is doing fine” in a new TV ad in Virginia and other key states.

The ad, titled “Rebuild,” begins with Obama saying that he empathizes with Americans hit hard by the economic crisis, commenting, “You can tell, it wears on them.”

A narrator touts the virtues of the president’s economic plan, saying it would keep taxes low for the middle class, invest in education and ask the wealthy “to pay their fair share.”

The narrator adds: “Mitt Romney and his billionaire allies can spend millions to distort the president’s words, but they’re not interested in rebuilding the middle class. He is.”

Romney and outside groups have relentlessly attacked the president for his remark on the economy, painting him as out of touch. Less than a week after Obama’s comment, Romney aired an ad in Virginia and other states titled “Doing Fine?”    

The new Obama ad, which has yet to be officially announced by the campaign, is reportedly airing in Virginia, Colorado, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Iowa, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Florida.

“President Obama has had over three years to turn around our economy, but his big-government policies have not helped the middle class like he promised,” responded Curt Cashour, Virginia communications director for Romney’s campaign.

“President Obama said that the private sector is ‘doing fine’ just as middle-class Americans are struggling to make ends meet, find good work, and stay in their homes.”