Romney vs. Perry: GOP Candidates Unload in Ad War
Rick Perry and Mitt Romney have taken their war of words from this week’s GOP debate to the YouTube masses with a pair of the harshest attack ads you’re likely to see in a Republican primary.
Romney unloaded first yesterday with this video* attacking Perry for being a bit, well, slow on the drawl. The ad includes a pricelessly deadpan assessment of the Texas governor’s debating prowess from Fox News’ Brit Hume:
Today, the Perry campaign returned fire — with hollow-point bullets — targeting Mitt Romney’s flip flops in an epic ad evoking a trailer for a new Michael Bay blockbuster.
Perry’s plummeting poll numbers (he’s currently in sixth place in Iowa with seven percent support) had raised questions as to whether the one-time frontrunner might go quietly to defeat, in the manner of 2008 flash-in-the-pan candidate Fred Thompson.
But Perry has a formidable war chest and now seems determined to use it wound Romney, even if he can’t defeat him.
This fratricidal GOP air war — featuring the kind of attack ads that could be immediately repurposed by the Obama campaign in the general election — is surely being met with high fives in Chicago.
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* The Romney ad has since been pulled, reportedly after CNN complained about the use of its footage. The copy above was preserved by a liberal group that tracks GOP communications.