The Bain attack ads have hurt Romney in South Carolina, as a Romney supporter acknowledges, although nowhere near the impact Romney’s SuperPAC’s anti-Newt ads had in Iowa. (Before the Romney supporters get all preachy, I’ve had a chance to look back at some of those Iowa ads, and they were full of lies, like the claim that Newt supports amnesty.)
The damage was done on Bain, there was no need in harping on the theme by Newt himself, although the SuperPAC is not giving up on the issue. (added) It does not help Romney that a local South Carolina paper is focusing on Bain’s handling of GS Industries.
Having attacked Romney on his core claim of business experience, they have moved on to Romney’s other strength, the narrative of electability.
This ad, which will not be aired in South Carolina until tomorrow, makes reference to the Quin Hillyer column I mentioned yesterday:
This ad, also to run in South Carolina starting tomorrow, keeps up on the Romney business theme:
Newt’s own campaign also is hammering the electability theme:
Romney’s SuperPAC is not sitting idly by, hitting Newt as anti-capitalist:
I previously posted anti-Santorum ads by Ron Paul and the Romney SuperPAC, so I won’t repeat them.
I could not find any recent attack ads targeting Perry. That should tell you that the other campaigns do not consider him a viable contender at this point, although he could be a spoiler if he draws votes away from Newt and allows Romney to win.
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