PUEBLO, Colo. – Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama both deplored the pervasive presence of televised attack ads in the race for the White House on Thursday, although neither acknowledged being helped or harmed. Each blamed his foe.

Romney went first, saying of the president’s campaign, “They just blast ahead” with ads that have been judged false by independent fact checkers.

“I don’t know whatever happened to a campaign of ‘hope and change,’ ” he said, a mocking reference to the spirit of optimism that Obama evoked during his successful run for the White House in 2008.