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Romney on the air in Florida in advance of the primary

Posted Jan 3, 2012 by William March

Updated Jan 3, 2012 at 11:34 PM

The Mitt Romney campaign will begin airing the first pre-Florida primary ad today, a positive message but with veiled jabs at Newt Gingrich and President Barack Obama.

The ad, which already has run in New Hampshire and Iowa and is now on the air in South Carolina, shows images of Romney as a young man with his family, in recent Republican candidates’ debates and speaking at a rally.

Its text, spoken by Romney:

“I think people understand that I’m a man of steadiness and constancy. I don’t think you’re going to find somebody who has more of those attributes than I do.
“I’ve been married to the same woman for 25 – excuse me, I’ll get in trouble – for 42 years. I’ve been in the same church my entire life. I worked at one company, Bain, for 25 years. And I left that to go off and help save the Olympic Games.
“If I’m President of the United States, I will be true to my family, to my faith, and to our country, and I will never apologize for the United States of America.”

The references to the length of Romney’s marriage, employment and church membership sound a lot like indirect shots at thrice-married Newt Gingrich, who also has switched religions a couple of times, and the “apologize” reference is a shot at Obama.

It’s the first ad by any of the presidential campaigns in the lead-up to the Jan. 31 primary. The campaign hasn’t provided any information on the size or location of the ad buy.

See it here.