New Obama Ads Were Filmed in the West Wing

By MICHAEL D. SHEAR and PETER BAKER

When President Obama sat down to record his latest campaign ads, he didn't have far to go.

Two ads released in the last two days were filmed just a few feet from the Oval Office in the West Wing workplace of his chief of staff, an unusual - but not unprecedented - use of the official space of the White House for campaign purposes.

Speaking directly to the camera in one ad, Mr. Obama urges voters to see the election as a big choice between competing visions for the country. The backdrop? The floral couch, rust-colored pillows and white mantel in the room that currently serves as Jack Lew's office.

In another ad, Mr. Obama accuses Mr. Romney of twisting his words about small businesses. That ad was filmed in the same office, in front of Mr. Lew's conference table.

What benefit Mr. Obama's campaign team saw in the backdrops is unclear. To the untrained eye, the president m ight just as easily have been sitting in a nicely appointed room in a fancy hotel. The campaign referred calls to the White House.

White House officials insist there is absolutely nothing illegal or improper about it. They point to numerous campaign ads that show George W. Bush walking along the White House Colonnade and ads for Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan that show them working in the Oval Office.

Reagan, in particular, filmed a four-minute ad from his desk in the Oval Office, speaking directly about the choice before voters.

A White House spokesman was immediately ready with the video clips and citations that show Mr. Bush's campaign once used a still image of the Republican president standing in the Oval Office.

Eric Schultz, a White House spokesman, said the filming of Mr. Obama's campaign commercials was “no different than the multitude of examples of past presidents of both parties spanning th e last four decades.”

But others say Mr. Obama's ad pushes somewhat beyond the generic shots and B-roll of a president at work by briefly turning a West Wing office into an advertising studio for his campaign.

“What a White House has to be careful of is that they don't too easily use the tools around them in a way that would be inappropriate,” said Matt Schlapp, who served as Mr. Bush's political director.

Several former Bush officials, including Mr. Schlapp, said they recalled Mr. Bush being filmed walking along the Colonnade alongside the Rose Garden, including some of him walking side-by-side with favored Republican lawmakers. But Mr. Schlapp, now a Republican strategist, said Mr. Obama's ad is different.

“Presidents are careful. There are these conversations about where the lines are,” Mr. Schlapp said. “The perception could be to the voter that President Obama is more focused on his re-election instead of getting the job done.”

< p>Richard W. Painter, who was the chief ethics officer in the Bush White House and now teaches at the University of Minnesota law school said that “filming a political commercial in the chief of staff's office would imply official endorsement, and I would probably say no.”

But he added that it would not be illegal, and that he would not have made a big case of it. “So long as it does not involve fund-raising I wouldn't strenuously object,” he said. “I would not describe it as highly improper.”

Sara Fagen, who also served as political director for Mr. Bush, was more charitable, calling the filming of the ad “an issue that won't matter at all. This will not change one vote.”

“There are a lot of things to criticize the president about,” Ms. Fagen said. “I don't think this is one of them.”

The use of the White House has long been a fraught area for presidents. It is both their home and their place of business, and they are inherent ly political candidates even as they are public servants. The lines have not always been clear.

After Mr. Carter held a luncheon for contributors in the Family Dining Room of the White House in 1978, the Justice Department issued an opinion making a distinction between the White House residence and the West Wing, essentially ruling that a president was entitled to use his home for political purposes. The opinion dealt specifically with fund-raising under the terms of a 19th century law intended to protect federal workers from solicitation in the workplace.

President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore ran into harsh criticism and a Justice Department review for their fund-raising activities from the White House before the 1996 election. Mr. Clinton hosted donors for coffees and Lincoln Bedroom overnights in the residence, while Mr. Gore made fund-raising calls from his White House office. Mr. Gore famously defended himself by saying there was “no controllin g legal authority.”

The Justice Department opinion on White House activities focused on fund-raising and did not extend to other political activity like advertising. But presidents have often, though not always, followed the same practice by holding purely political activities like campaign strategy meetings in the residence. Mr. Obama has been attending campaign briefings on Sunday nights in the Roosevelt Room of the West Wing.

Some critics took note of a recent report that Mr. Obama convened from Air Force One a conference call with supporters about fund-raising.

“I'd take a grass-roots check every time,” he told the supporters, according to one who later wrote about it on The Huffington Post. “Whatever you can do will be helpful. I have confidence that the number of people who can beat gazillionaires every single time.”

Mr. Painter said that a general strategy call from Air Force One would not be as objectionable as one explicitly request ing money. “I don't think an ask call should be made from Air Force One,” he said.

Mr. Obama's campaign has also recently added a campaign spokeswoman to the gaggle of aides that routinely travel on Air Force One with the president when he takes campaign trips. While on Air Force One on several recent trips, Jen Psaki, the spokeswoman, has used a laptop to show campaign ads to the reporters along on the trips.