Romney is Spending $5M in Attack Ads Leading to Super Tuesday

These are not just ad buys but attack ad buys to take out Santorum and Gingrich with the Romney 'scorched earth' agenda against fellow Republicans.  What's Romney going to do if he wins the nomination and conservatives tell him to shove it?  He will have spent all this money to systematically take out one candidate after another with lies and innuendos which they know are not true.  Yet they expect the supporters of those candidates to support Romney?  Not happening in a lot of instances.  The bad blood along with the split in the party is getting wider with this 'scorched earth' policy of Romney.

Why does he want to be President so bad that Romney along with his Super PAC will destroy anyone in his path and don't care if they have to lie to do it?  It seems he could care less if he destroys the Republican Party as we know it.  This primary has turned into all about Romney and his money advantage because he is wealthy and has collected so much from Wall Street financials and  K Street Lobbyists which will be there with their hands out if he became President.  We would be seeing the same thing we see with Obama as some of them are the same players.

Wonder what some of the establishment are thinking of their candidate now knowing that he won't listen to anyone about stopping the 'scorched earth' policy.  Is this what they had in mind.  We seriously doubt it.  No wonder Jeb Bush refused to endorse Romney in Florida or Rick Scott.  That was smart not to hitch yourself to his bandwagon that is as nasty as they come.  No one I know of has seen this much money poured into a primary election for ad buys.  This is more what you would see from a general election.  Buying an election with nasty ads and suspect caucus votes along with NH and FL irregularities is not the right way to win elections but when you are a liberal Republican trying to play the part of a conservative that is all you have.

Poor Michigan is up next -- would be enough to make me not watch TV or DVR everything which leaves out the ads if I lived in Michigan.  Hope Michigan voters see through Romney as his mode of operation with 'scorched earth' is well known now and it backfires on him big time.

Romney's $5 Million Ad BlitzBy Reid WilsonFebruary 15, 2012 | 12:22 PM 

A central strength most pundits (including this one) have cited when describing Mitt Romney as the Republican front-runner is money: He has it, his opponents do not. 

The 20 days leading up to Super Tuesday will show whether we were right. Romney and a super PAC that backs his campaign are about to embark on an all-out television blitz aimed at tearing down Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, an assault that already adds up to more than $5 million in key primary states -- and there are few signs either of Romney's rivals have the financial ability to respond.

Ad buy data we've obtained from sources keeping an eye on the race show both Romney's campaign and Restore Our Future, the pro-Romney super PAC, are buying much more television time than previously thought. Restore Our Future will spend a total of $1.25 million in Michigan in the two weeks leading up to the state's February 28 primary; Romney's campaign is augmenting that with $617,000 in Michigan ads this week, though they haven't bought time next week yet. 

Click here to a list of Romney ad buys along with his Super PAC 

Santorum has a $42K ad buy for Cable

Restore Our Future is also placing big advertising bets on Arizona ($121,000 this week, $493,000 next week); Ohio ($112,000 this week, $634,000 next week); Tennessee ($108,000 this week, $426,000 next week); Oklahoma ($36,000 this week, $199,000 next week); and Georgia ($119,000 this week, $554,000 next week. 

All told, the Romney-backing PAC is spending $5 million on television advertising over the next two weeks, an incredible amount usually reserved for the final days of a general election campaign, not a primary battle. 

And at the moment, they appear to have the playing field to themselves. Neither the pro-Santorum Red White and Blue Fund nor the pro-Gingrich Winning Our Future are up with advertisements of their own, leading some to wonder whether the billionaire benefactors who have bankrolled those PACs have decided to sit on their hands (Winning Our Future spent $69,000 on cable ads last week, but Red White and Blue Fund hasn't bought any advertisements since spending $126,000 in Minnesota, a state that held its contest on February 4). 

But Romney apparently needs the money to take down his rivals. A recent Quinnipiac University poll shows Santorum leading Romney by seven points in Ohio; a Mason-Dixon poll conducted for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows Gingrich leading Romney by 14 points; and several less-reliable IVR polls show Santorum leading in Michigan. 

Romney and his allies have the financial advantage to dominate the conversation over the next several weeks. As it turns out, he'll need it. 

Source:  National Journal