WASHINGTON — Surging Rick Santorum isn’t waiting around for Mitt Romney to destroy him with negative ads, unveiling his own action-packed TV spot that shows a Romney character sporting a mud-shooting machine gun.
The pre-emptive strike comes as a new poll released yesterday showed Santorum bursting out in front in Ohio, a major prize among the 10 states in the March 6 Super Tuesday contests.
Santorum led with 36 percent support from likely Republican primary voters in Ohio, followed by Romney with 29, according to the Quinnipiac University poll. Newt Gingrich finished third with 20 and Texas Rep. Ron Paul got 9.
The Santorum ad pokes fun at Romney’s “DC attack machine.” The former Pennsylvania senator is bracing for a Romney airwave blitzkrieg now that Santorum has emerged as the new front-runner for Republican presidential nomination.
The tongue-in-cheek ad, called “Rombo,” shows a well-groomed Romney look-alike stalking a Santorum cardboard cutout and shooting rapid-fire mud balls out of a machine gun.
“Mitt Romney’s negative attack machine is back, on full throttle. This time, Romney’s firing his mud at Rick Santorum,” says the narrator. “Why? Because Romney’s trying to hide from his big-government RomneyCare and his support for job-killing cap-and-trade. And in the end, Mitt Romney’s ugly attacks are going to backfire.”
The ad attempts to keep Romney’s well-funded campaign machine from torching Santorum as the ex-senator’s campaign gains momentum, as Romney did to great effect against Gingrich.