Why do voters think Obama is running a more negative campaign than Romney? According to David Axelrod, its because of Romney’s negative ads.

Axelrod complained this morning on Morning Joe, that negative ads run against the president was the reason he only had a 43 percent approval rating. “Understand that there have been probably $110, $120 million of negative ads run against the president just in the last few months and so they’re going to have an impact.” Axelrod said.

Host Joe Scarborough pointed out that according to a recent poll, 22 percent voters believed that Obama was running the more negative campaign and only 12 percent of voters said that same about Mitt Romney.

“That’s because the Romney campaign and their friends in the Super PAC world have just spent tens of millions of dollars specifically on spots accusing Obama of running a negative campaign,” Axelrod asserted.

“So it’s not your negative ads, it’s their negative ads accusing you of being negative…” Scarborough responded incredulously.