Here's a new ad, in which Mitt Romney somehow looks almost human:

So far as these ads go, it's a good one. It introduces Romney's biography in a pleasant, inoffensive way. It doesn't attack President Obama (although the "Believe in the America you built" at the end is of course another dig at "you didn't build that," it's subtle enough that people who don't know about it won't get it) and it makes an uncharismatic man at least seem like a human being, albeit a terribly square one. They achieve that using a bunch of tricks, but the most prominent one is the fact that we're sitting in the back seat of the car as Romney tells his story back to us, as though he's the dad driving and telling us kids about the way the world works. It creates a subliminal sense of comfort, and trust in Romney.

The story in this ad can be pretty easily punctured by an attack ad or two, though. Note that Romney doesn't say what kind of a business he started. That bit about him knowing what it's like to "wonder whether you're going to be able to make ends meet down the road" will seem disingenuous when viewers realize that he comes from money and went on to make a quarter of a billion dollars. But for a biography ad, it's well-made.