The Republican primary race has entered a decisive phase with Mitt Romney’s decision to go negative on the surging Mike Huckabee. Romney’s unleashed the first attack ad of the campaign hitting Huckabee for his position on immigration and he’s knocking him in tough language on television, telling last night’s evening news that: “I’m convinced as people take a good hard look at Mike Huckabee’s record, they’ll see this is a guy who is soft on criminals, soft on illegal aliens, but hard on taxpayers. And that’s not what’s going to lead the Republican party to take the White House.” On top of this, Romney’s favourite outlet for opposition research, The Drudge Report, is playing up stories that are damaging to Huckabee.
This is a risky strategy for the Romney campaign. First, Iowa voters are notoriously dislike negative campaigning and so Romney risks a backlash in a state he really needs to win after devoting unparalleled resources and effort to it.
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