Newt Gingrich is promising to build NASA colonies on the moon. Mitt Romney is imagining Fidel Castro in “a nether region,” which one can only assume is a polite Mormon phrase for hell. Both men are all over the radio, putting on …
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With Nomination Almost in Reach, Romney Looks to Bury Gingrich Again in South Carolina
Spartanburg, South Carolina
With just days until the South Carolina primary looming as the last real hurdle on his march to the Republican nomination, Mitt Romney is trying to ward off a late charge from Newt Gingrich by …
Welcome to Low Country: A Compendium of South Carolina Political Ads
As GOP presidential rivals compete in the notoriously nasty primary race in South Carolina, negative ad season is reaching its climax. Here is a comprehensive guide to all the mudslinging currently underway on Palmetto State airwaves.
The Great Bain Diversion
The great debate about whether Mitt Romney was a vulture capitalist or venture capitalist at Bain Capital is useful and interesting, but not for the reasons many people pretend it is. The country benefits from a frank discussion about the wages of capitalism and what limits, if any, we should place on free markets. But the specifics of …
What Ad Spending Says About Each GOP Candidate–and Their Success
Restore Our Future, the super PAC backing Mitt Romney, has spent $8.9 million on the 2012 Republican presidential primary, more money than any other group. Throughout the fall it held its fire, even as Ron Paul pumped money into …
Super PACs Play a Leading Role in Republican Air War
Republican presidential candidates and outside groups which support them have spent $38.7 million on political advertising since last fall, according to data acquired by TIME.
Gingrich’s Super PAC Attack on Romney: Good Lord, Is This Ad Negative
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The New Hampshire primary is being held today, but the bigger news for connoisseurs of campaign ads is that the Republican race has moved from the “contrast” phase to the “negative” phase to the “from Hell’s heart, I stab at thee” phase.
New Hampshire Creates Big Expectations, if Little Drama, as GOP Race Wears On
Somersworth, New Hampshire
In a final, frantic day of campaigning before Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary, the six Republican presidential hopefuls sought to calibrate expectations for a race from which Mitt Romney’s healthy …
The Iowa Ad Bonanza: GOP Candidates’ Closing Arguments on TV
As the GOP presidential primary campaign winds down its Iowa chapter, the candidates have taken to their buses and prop planes to sniff out undecided voters in the farthest reaches of the state before Tuesday’s caucuses. But to the nonfanatical participants, those who haven’t crowded into coffee shops or diners to catch a glimpse of the …
Newt’s Closing Argument: Just Glad to Be on the Team
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Michael Scherer directs me to this new ad from Newt Gingrich, an upbeat composite of debate talking points on the economy. It’s reportedly a “major buy” scheduled to run through next week in Iowa–his closing argument. It’s also a very odd choice for this moment in the race.
Perry PAC Accuses Newt of Supervillainous Plot
The Super PAC supporting Rick Perry is airing a new ad bashing Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich in familiar terms. But it does so through a whimsical, old-timey newsreel device which I assume is meant to make the message feel less nasty. The Perry camp is probably mindful of the double-edged sword of going negative–namely that attack ads …
Not Beating Elizabeth Warren, GOP Admakers Try to Join Her
Back in early November, the Republican independent expenditure juggernaut Crossroads GPS wanted to take Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren down a peg, so they cut an ad insinuating that her attempts to rein in big banks had put spark to the dry tinder in Zuccotti Park. “Elizabeth Warren sides with extreme left protests,” a …
The Ad War Heats Up: How Religion Is Playing in Iowa
Somewhat lost in the Newt Gingrich supernova is the fact that Rick Perry still has something the other fallen front-runners of 2011 lack: a big pot of campaign money that he can use to cause mischief on the airwaves in early primary states. As National Journal reports, he’s planning a last stand of sorts in Iowa, where’s he’s begun to …