We reported Thursday that Mitt Romney was about to embark on a major general-election TV offensive, marking his first major use of the post-convention dollars his campaign has been dying to spend. Now, Team Romney is putting out word that they'll launch 15 ads in eight swing states, targeting a range of local and national issues in the battlegrounds that will decide the election...

The intensity and geographic spread of Romney's advertising is a show of force for the GOP nominee, and the state-specific targeting is also a shift from Romney's ultra-nationalized message, so far. If Romney's financial advantage is going to move the dial against Barack Obama, this is the moment for that to happen: between the huge earned-media opportunity and the huge earned-media opportunity of the debates, when money and traditional political advertising has the best chance of breaking through.