Priorities USA Action, a Democratic “SuperPAC,” today released this campaign ad to counteract ads from Crossroads GPS, the 501(c)(4) arm of American Crossroads, a conservative non-profit political organization founded by Ed Gillespie and Karl Rove:

Compare it to the first in the series of Crossroads GPS ads:

The difference between the two is pretty readily apparent. Whereas the Crossroads GPS ad relies on outside sources (NBC’s “Meet the Press” and quotes from President Obama himself, for example) and emphasizes facts, the Priorities USA piece speaks in broad generalities and makes sweeping, unsupported claims.

“We are Americans,” the ad begins. “We know right from wrong and we know the ads blaming President Obama for the economy are ‘politics at its worst.'”

It accuses Republicans of “opposing economic reform at every turn” and predictably suggests the Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) plan will “essentially end Medicare for future retirees [and] slash education, while giving huge tax breaks to Big Oil and the wealthy.”

But the ad does nothing to actually answer the facts presented in the Crossroads GPS ad: Unemployment up 25 percent (more than 14 million Americans out of work!), the national debt up by 35 percent and gas prices up 104 percent.

Surely the public won’t fall for it, even though Priorities USA designed its ad campaign to target the most crucial constituencies.

A source with knowledge of the spot from Priorities USA told CNN the buy is approximately $750,000, compared to the $5 million spent by Crossroads.

But the source said the conservative buy is spread out over states with “varying levels of competitiveness,” whereas Priorities USA is focused on states the group knows are competitive.

“We never expected we would be able to match Karl Rove dollar-for-dollar but we have a smarter advertising strategy and are running more effective ads,” the source said. “We just formed a couple months ago but will be ramping up our activity especially as we get closer to the end of this year.”

The Democratic SuperPAC itself just launched in April, but clearly aims to be a competitive force in the 2012 elections.