Why Gingrich Trails: Heavy Deluge of Negative Ads (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | Sometimes a negative political ad can hurt the candidate it's directed at or the one who has put it together. In the case with the upcoming Florida primary for the Republican presidential race, it is the former. The TV ads airing in Florida against Gingrich are out with a vengeance. No wonder one of the leading polls on Friday shows Newt Gingrich falling behind Mitt Romney. Romney leads Gingrich by 8 percentage points in the Reuters/Ipsos poll

During the times when the local and national news are on, in addition to the pre-prime time hours, that's when the political ads run in any given campaign season. It is no different in the Tampa area, where the Republican National Convention is to be held in August. During the week it was the same two negative Gingrich ads playing at every commercial break. This was to the point of overkill where you just had enough. One is Romney's Super PAC ad, the other his attack ad. Unfortunately, negative ads work. I vividly remember for the Florida governor's race in 2010. Rick Scott ran a number of negative ads against his opponent for the general election that obviously worked.

Romney's Super PAC, Restore Our Future, TV ad is titled "Reagan (FL)", reports The Guardian. The Florida primary TV ad shows a montage of how Gingrich would mention "Ronald Reagan" 50 times over the course of many debates during the campaign, even before Iowa and New Hampshire. It opens with "You'd think Newt Gingrich was Ronald Reagan's vice president." If that wasn't enough, it goes on with another barb how Reagan only mentioned Gingrich once in his diary.

To add further insult to injury, President Ronald Reagan, according to this Super PAC, rejected Gingrich's ideas on defense and his thoughts on policy. The final kicker comes with its closing "On leadership and character, Gingrich is no Ronald Reagan." The last line is very reminiscent when Dan Quayle compared himself to John F. Kennedy and his debate opponent Lloyd Bentsen quickly pointed out "Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy." What happened to that so-called caring and compassionate candidate Mitt Romney portrays in his Internet ad?

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120128/us_ac/10896795_why_gingrich_trails_heavy_deluge_of_negative_ads

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