BY WESLEY P. HESTER

As President Barack Obama kicks off a two-day swing through Virginia, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is out with a new ad here casting Obama’s campaign tactics as unbefitting of a president.

The 30-second ad, titled “What Happened?” features footage of Obama at the 2008 Democratic National Convention decrying negative campaigning.

“Because if you don’t have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare voters,” Obama says as the ad cuts to a Politico headline reading: “Obama plan: Destroy Romney.”

“If you don’t have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from,” the president says, as the ad shows text from a Washington Post Fact Checker piece on one of Obama’s ads that reads: “On just about every level, this ad is misleading, unfair and untrue.”

The ad concludes with Obama saying, “you make a big election about small things,” followed by text reading: “We expect more from a president.”

The ad is the second in two days from the Romney campaign accusing Obama of negative, dishonest attacks.