It was released on March 23, 2012. It creates the image of empty American towns in 2 years, and uses very dark imagery and almost horror-genre like angst. The images of the residents of these towns are cast in dark shadows, and with depressing old infrastructure. This advertisement is painting the picture that in the next 2 years President Obama will destroy the American way of life. The second half of the ad shows the face of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, as that country defies America and seeks Nuclear Power. The end of the advertisement has the image of "Obama Ville, coming to a town near you," in a pseudo 1950s Hitchcock style, and plugs the official website of Rick Santorum.com for more content on this subject (Santorum, Obama Ville, 2012). Despite airing so recently, Mitt Romney is not mentioned at all in the ad, and it would seem as if Rick Santorum is trying to gain momentum against President Obama, rather than his actual foe, Mitt Romney. The idea that President Obama is going to somehow destroy America in the next two years, considering he has been governing for four, is quite dramatic to say the least, but provides the imagery required to jumpstart the struggling campaign of Rick Santorum. The final ad selected from Rick Santorum's campaign is entitled "This Man," and was aired first on April 2, 2012 before the Wisconsin primaries (Santorum, This Man, 2012). It is the most radical advertisement of the bunch, beginning with the dubious claim that President Obama's health care plan provides $50 abortions while killing thousands of jobs, immediately stirring Santorum's conservative base. It is a strange election year advertisement even for the United States when job killing and cheap abortions are placed within 5 seconds of each other in an advertisement. The ad then mentions President Obama's "radical" cap and trade program, which was pursued by President Bush, and is already used worldwide. It then continues to suggest that President Obama supported the Wall St. bailouts, which were supported by just about everyone in government, including then-President George Bush, because of the dire need to maintain the financial system that had been in place. The ad then says that President Obama raised taxes over $700 million, which is actually a very small amount, only about $3 per taxpayer. The twist of the advertisement comes in the last seconds, as the face of President Obama fades and the face of Mitt Romney appears, thus providing the crux of the argument; Rick Santorum is the best candidate for the job because of all of the negative aspects of Mitt Romney's career piled up look as if he is not the best conservative choice for the Republican Party.

Rick Santorum has been the most effective conservative candidate in this election cycle by far, easily surpassing Newt Gingrich, who had an early South Carolina victory, even though Santorum has very little name recognition compared to the old Speaker of the House. The main challenge of Rick Santorum has been trying to assemble a very quick campaign team compared to the long drawn out march of Mitt Romney, and also the fact that Gingrich has divided the conservative base of the Republican party, particularly in the south, against Santorum, which has the downside of assisting Mitt Romney in the delegate count.

Strategy Discussion

The three Mitt Romney advertisements studied show the direction and confidence of Mitt Romney's Presidential campaign. He does not spend the majority of his money trying to attack his rivals, but rather spends half of his time promoting himself, and half attacking the President, which is a strategy undertaken by a campaign that believes that it will surely last until the nomination. This is not always the case, however, as Romney outspent Santorum 4 to 1 in Wisconsin's Primary, in an attempt to shut him out (Gabriel, 2012). Romney tries to appeal as best he can to conservative voters, not by embracing social conservative issues, but rather by appealing to his excellent management skills, and success in the private sector. Romney has cornered the fiscal conservative agenda during his...

When Romney does go on the offensive, it is to frame Santorum as an extreme and non-practical candidate for winning in November, and attacks President Obama by attacking the supposed weaknesses in his government managing style. This latter strategy will probably continue until the Presidential debates this coming September and October, assuming Mitt Romney continues his victories.
Rick Santorum has taken a different strategy due to his primary election weakness thus far, which forces him to always be on the offensive in his advertisements. Fortunately for Santorum, this is a position that conservatives fight well from, since he has two targets, the centrist-Romney and the liberal-Obama. When Santorum is focused on an imminently upcoming primary he will target Mitt Romney on specific weaknesses that hit cues in the electorate that show that he is not truly the best candidate for Republicans to be putting forward this year. When Santorum simply wants to attack a liberal policy of the U.S. Government, he attacks President Obama, as the functionary of this government and as the backer of his own Health Care reform law. Santorum loves to rile his supporters on the issue of abortion, which has always been an extremely controversial subject to the conservative populace, as Protestants and Catholics together can agree that this policy is inhumane, despite the fact that abortion has been legal in the United States for nearly 40 years.

Conclusions

In conclusion, despite Rick Santorum's best efforts to win, Mitt Romney has more than double the amount of pledged delegates, far more money and volunteers, and has a favorable rest of the primary season. The primary season has been slow in April, but Romney has come out on top in every contest. On April 24th, the largest Primary Election day since Super Tuesday will take place, with states such as New York and California voting, and despite the fact that these two states will most assuredly go to President Barack Obama, Romney will have a very good chance of pulling his lead so far ahead that he will be considered by most everyone to be the assumed Republican party nominee. As vicious as the advertising season has been, it seems as if the General Election this summer and autumn will be the most cutthroat and expensive campaign season yet.

Works Cited

Chen, H. (2009). AI, E-government, and Politics 2.0. Intellegent Systems, 64-86.

Crawford, K. (2009). Following you: Disciplines of listening in social media. Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 525-535.

Crowe, T. (2012, March 1). Santorum more electable than Romney? Retrieved from Catholic Vote: http://www.catholicvote.org/discuss/index.php?p=27435

Gabriel, Trip. (2012). Wisconsin Votes in Primaries." NYTimes. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/04/us/politics/wisconsin-votes-after- fiercely-fought- battle.html?_r=1&scp=8&sq=primary%20advertisements&st=cse

Ozkan, E. (2008, December 15). The Power of Politics 2.0. Retrieved from Side Boat: http://siteboat.com/the-power-of-politics-20/

Red, White, and Blue Fund. Posted by rwbfund. (2012). America's Future. [Youtube Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAXRe9_VUtU

Restore Our Future Inc. Posted by RestoreOurFuture. (2012). "Right Experience." [Youtube Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xziumBt0Tls

Richard, M. (2009, January 12). U.S. Gas Price Review. Retrieved from Tree Hugger: http://www.treehugger.com/corporate-responsibility/2008-us-gas-price-year-in-review.html

Romney, Mitt. Posted by mittromney. (2012). Conservative Record. [Youtube Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0WpiitXYSU

Romney, Mitt. Posted by mittromney. (2012). None of the Above [Youtube Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyOxq3uMzmw

Salmond, Rob. (2012). Issues in Technology Innovation. Number 12. MeTube: Political Advertising, Elections, and Campaigns on Youtube.

Santorum, Rick. Posted by Floridaboy7777. (2012). Obamaville - "Anti-Obama" Ad. [Youtube Video file]. Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDGORiD82rQ

Santorum, Rick. Posted by JimHeath2012. (2012). "This Man" ad 2012. [Youtube Video file]. Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kM-j_fsi4H4

York, a. (2012, January 24). Mitt Romney leads GOP field in California. Retrieved from L.A. Times: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2012/01/mitt-romney-newt-gingrich-ron-paul-rick-santorum-ppic-california-poll.html

Appendix