Mitt Romney released a new ad today that features Michigan resident Ryan King, discussing how difficult it is to live through the economic downturn:

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King talks in the ad about the tough time he’s having, including being forced to subsist off baloney sandwiches. That, paired with his comment, “How can I get experience if no one is going to hire me in?” seemed to imply to some that King was unemployed. But King also says at one point that he has $3 to his name until he cashes his next paycheck — a sentence that clearly shows he’s employed currently.

Nevertheless, both the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post sites have stories about King’s Facebook page, which indicates he was hired by a company in May (although the Post says that company says King is no longer working for them, meaning that the paycheck line might refer to a different company).

Admittedly, it’s somewhat surprising the Romney campaign didn’t choose an unemployed person to make the case even more starkly about the pain of the recession, but it doesn’t appear they made any effort to fool audiences into thinking King was unemployed. Even with a job, it’s not necessarily easy to get by. Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom told the Journal that, “He’s [King] struggling right now, just like millions and millions of other Americans. The only person who apparently thinks the economy is doing well is President Obama.”