Obama campaign tells Romney to 'stop whining' about Bain Capital attacks Romney senior adviser Kevin Madden, left, and Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter face off on CBS's Face the Nation. Photograph: Chris Usher/AP Barack Obama's campaign team rejected demands on Sunday that the president apologise over accusations that Mitt Romney lied about his time at Bain Capital and may have committed a crime. Stephanie Cutter, Obama's deputy campaign manager, insisted that the Republican challenger was "not going to get an apology" and that he should "stop whining." The issue of when exactly Romney left private equity firm Bain Capital dominated the White House campaign for a fourth successive day on Sunday. Kevin Madden, a senior Romney adviser, who sat beside Cutter on CBS's Face the Nation, described it as "troubling" that the Obama campaign would label an "honourable" man such as Romney a felon. Obama has successfully deflected the White House election campaign from the US employment figures, stubbornly stuck at 8.2%, to focus on Romney's finances, both his time at Bain and disclosures about his use of tax havens in the Caymans and Bermuda and a Swiss bank account. The Romney campaign admitted for the first time publicly on Sunday that the Obama strategy is working. Keeping the pressure on the Republican candidate, supporters of the president are to air an ad in swing states featuring Romney singing, badly, America the Beautiful against footage showing the Caymans, Bermuda, Switzerland and countries Bain is alleged to have shipped jobs to - India, Mexico and China. The 30-second ad is to be shown in nine Colorado, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Romney, unusually for this media-shy candidate, did a round of television interviews on Friday during which he called for Obama to apologise for the felon charge. The Bain row centres on Romney's claim that he left Bain Capital in 1999 to run the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. Filings to the securities and exchange commission appear to contradict that, showing he listed himself as late as 2001-2002 as chief executive of the company. Cutter on Thursday upped the ante in the election campaign when she told reporters Romney was either lying to the American public or to the securities and exchange commission, which would be a felony. Cutter refused to back away on Sunday. It's interesting, just a few months ago in the Republican primary, Mitt Romney said to his opponents, who he was crushing at the time, 'stop whining'. And I think that's a good message for the Romney campaign. Instead of whining about what the Obama campaign is saying, why don't you just put the facts out there and let people decide, rather than trying to hide them," Cutter said. She reiterated calls for Romney to release his tax returns, which Romney has steadfastly refused to do, other than for one year, 2010. The Obama campaign has also called on Romney to get Bain to release reports of board and other meetings for 1999-2002 to establish the extent, if any, of Romney's involvement. FactCheck, an independent organisation set up by the Annenberg Public Policy Center to monitor election claims, concluded there is little new in media reports suggesting Romney may have been still actively involved with Bain between 1999 and 2002. FactCheck quoted a law professor saying there is no basis for the Obama campaign to accuse Romney of having possibly committed a felony. The problem for Romney is two-fold: the row is taking up valuable time he would rather was used to highlight unemployment and, secondly, mud sticks, just as it did in the Republicans' unfounded allegations in the swift-boat campaign against John Kerry in the 2004 White House campaign. Cutter described the ad of Romney singing as a bit of fun but one with a serious point. Madden labelled it "troubling," a distraction from the issue he said voters were most concerned about, unemployment. Another of Romney's advisers, Ed Gillespie, talking on CNN's State of the Nation, acknowledged the success of the Obama strategy. "They want to talk about anything other President Obama's dismal record on the economy, and it's working," Gillespie said. Romney's 1999-2002 role in Bain - he remained sole owner, one of the few things not in dispute - is proving a minefield for his campaign team. Gillespie added to the muddle on Sunday with a new, contorted explanation, saying Romney had in 2002 "retroactively retired." Gillespie claimed Obama would do anything to get elected. "It's sad to see, and I think Americans now know, you've got these baseless charges on moving jobs overseas, which independent fact-checkers have said are not true, they're indeed a lie," Gillespie said. And then a completely reckless and unfounded allegation of criminal activity, and so it's sad to see. We now know that this president will say or do anything to keep the highest office in the land, even if it means demeaning the highest office in the land.