The campaign of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney holds a substantial cash advantage over that of President Barack Obama, and the GOP side hopes to put that money to good use hammering Obama over the weak economy.

As of Aug. 31, the Romney campaign had $168.5 million on hand. The Obama side didn’t publish a figure for that category. But given that it trailed the Romney campaign by $62 million a month earlier, you can bet the Democrats didn’t have anything good to report.

Meanwhile, Friday’s news that the country gained only 96,000 jobs in August is an albatross around Obama’s neck. Even he admitted the increase was “not good enough.”

Republican strategist Ron Bonjean told The Hill, “It definitely blunts momentum for Obama to get a significant bounce at the polls. We’ve had anemic jobs numbers throughout the past months, we know the effect they have, and it shows that the race will essentially be tied.”

Just as significantly Friday, Romney’s campaign announced an advertising campaign with 15 new television spots in eight swing states. Each ad focuses on a different aspect of the economy – one specific to the state where it’s being shown.

The looming fiscal cliff of automatic spending cuts and tax hikes slated to begin Jan. 1 gives Romney a potent issues to use against Obama. “With Congress coming back until the end of the month, he [Romney] can say you’re the commander in chief, your responsibility is to work with Congress to solve these issues that are facing this country from major tax hikes to dramatic defense cuts,” Bonjean said.

“He can set up the expectation with the result of expressing disappointment based on the president’s failure to get anything done.”