New Romney Iowa ad: Smaller government, end of 'Obamacare'

The Hill ^ | 12/26/11 | Daniel Strauss

[Libloather]

New Romney Iowa ad: Smaller government, end of 'Obamacare'
By Daniel Strauss - 12/26/11 11:20 AM ET

Mitt Romney is airing a new 30-second ad in Iowa in which he promises to shrink government and get rid of the Obama administration's healthcare reform law.

The ad, "Conservative Agenda", features Romney promising to streamline the federal government and highlighting the former Massachusetts governor's background as a businessman. Spliced together with clips of him talking, Romney is seen walking through factories and talking with voters in a diner setting.

"I'm going to do something to government," Romney says in the ad. "I'm going to make it simpler and smaller and smarter. Getting rid of programs, turning programs back to states, and finally, making government itself more efficient."

Romney also stresses stronger fiscal discipline in the ad.

"It’s a moral imperative for America to stop spending more money than we take in," Romney says. "The experience of balancing budgets is desperately needed in Washington and I will take it there," Romney says.

The ad comes just ahead of the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses. The early date of the Iowa caucuses has caused the Republican presidential campaigns to have a sort of ceasefire and hold off on negative attacks and ads during the holiday season. Restore Our Future, a pro-Romney superpac, was off the air on Saturday and Sunday. The respite of negative attacks is meant to avoid offending large swaths of Iowa Christian conservatives.

[redpoll]

This should confirm your instincts are correct:

America's Ruling Class -- And the Perils of Revolution

Cheers.

[Antoninus]

Sure, Willard, sure. Repeal ObamaCare and replace it with RomneyCare.

No thanks.

[Antoninus]

And paradoxically, this is why negative advertising works so well in politics -- when I go negative on Romney when I talk about him to people, I'm not trying to sell them anything, I'm not trying to contrast him to "my guy," whoever that might be. I'm only trying to tell them, "Stay the hell away from Romney." The negative stays focused on Romney.

It does work. Every time I see a good conservative friend post something positive about Romney on Facebook, I immediately post the montage video of him saying every liberal cliche in the book. They immediately recant. It has worked every time I've tried it.

[Finny]

Amen Brother FReeper!

[Finny]

Very long but very good read — thanks, redpoll. Jim, check out the link in redpoll’s post #21 above. I think it supports your contention that a third party could win this time around.