When President Obama arrives in New Hampshire today, where he will deliver a speech promoting the payroll tax holiday portion of his jobs plan, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney will be waiting for him with a scathing new television ad slamming Obama’s economic record.

It’s a clear indication that, despite rival Newt Gingrich’s recent gains in the polls, Romney sees himself as the person who will challenge Obama in 2012. The president currently trails Romney among general election voters in the critically important state, which he carried in 2008 by 54 percent, according to a recent Bloomberg News survey.

The commercial, which will be the first television ad of Romney’s 2012 White House bid, compares campaign promises that Obama made to turn around the economy and help the middle class with economic statistics that Romney believes show that the president has broken those promises, the Associated Press reports.

"The contrast between what he said and what he did is so stark, people will recognize we really do need to have someone new lead this country," Romney said in an interview with Fox News Channel Monday evening.

The ad includes a clip of then-candidate Obama at a campaign stop in New Hampshire saying, "If we keep talking about the economy, we're going to lose." But according to a fact-checking e-mail sent out by the Democratic National Committee Monday, that’s not all he said.

The full quote is as follows: "Sen. McCain's campaign actually said, and I quote, 'If we keep talking about the economy, we're going to lose'."

Romney’s campaign defended the ad Monday night in a statement to Politico.

“We used that quote intentionally to show that President Obama is doing exactly what he criticized McCain of doing four years ago. Obama doesn't want to talk about the economy because of his failed record,” it said.

Tuesday morning, the DNC sent out an email message calling the Republican a “serial deceiver” that includes examples him being dishonest, such as when he accused Obama of calling Americans lazy, and or flip-flopping on issues such as whether he’d privatize veterans’ benefits.

“Mitt Romney is a serial deceiver — and his deceptions know no bounds.  Romney will deceive about his own record, the record of his opponents and his positions on the issues,” said the DNC. “And when Mitt Romney is caught deceiving — he doubles down and deceives even more.”

(Photo: Brian Snyder/Reuters)