MANCHESTER — With six months to go before Election Day, Monday marked the beginning of the presidential campaign television ad wars in the Granite State.

New Hampshire is among only nine states in which President Barack Obama's reelection campaign began airing a new ad crediting Obama with turning the economy around. The 60-second ad also notes that during Obama's first term, Osama bin Laden has been killed and “our troops are coming home from Iraq.”

It is the first ad of the general election in New Hampshire, the Obama campaign said.

New Hampshire, despite having only four electoral votes, is considered an important swing state in the general election. The ad is airing in other swing states, as well: Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Nevada, Iowa, North Carolina, Florida and Colorado.

The ad begins by citing “an economic meltdown” and the “worst financial collapse since the Great Depression” in 2008.

“America's economy, spiraling down,” the ad says, “All before this President took office.”

But, the ad says, because Obama “believed in us,” and “fought for us,” the auto industry “is back, firing on all cylinders,” and “instead of losing jobs, we're creating them.

“We're not there yet,” the ad says, “but we're coming back.” The ad says Americans “don't quit. And neither does he (Obama).”

The campaign is reportedly spending $25 million on this ad and other similar ads tailored to specific states.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus reacted to the ad by saying, “For someone whose campaign slogan is ‘forward,' President Obama spends a lot of time looking backward and blaming others for the state of the American economy.”

Priebus said, “While Obama may want you to forget he's been President for the past three and a half years, the fact that his policies have wreaked havoc on the middle class from high unemployment, high energy and higher education costs won't be forgotten. America deserves better than Obama's brand of hype and blame.”