The Negative Ads That Brought Down Newt

Every other candidate who rose to challenge Mitt Romney as frontrunner of the Republican primary race has lost that spot by saying something stupid except poor Newt Gingrich, who was largely taken down by YouTube.

Every other candidate who rose to challenge Mitt Romney as frontrunner of the Republican primary race has lost that spot by saying something stupid except poor Newt Gingrich, who was largely taken down by YouTube. Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, and Herman Cain were all victims of their own momentary idiocy -- vaccine rumors, oops moments,  cluelessness about Libya, respectively -- but Gingrich's debating and punditry skills have helped him avoid such embarrassments. Instead, his opponents have skewered him in a ton of attack ads on YouTube and Iowa television. He's now tied with Romney nationally and polling behind him in Iowa. The situation has Gingrich feeling a little bit sorry for himself: "It's candidly very disappointing to see some of my friends who are running put out so much negative junk," he told a crowd in Davenport on Monday, the Los Angeles Times reports. "I really wish they would have the courage to be positive, and I wish they would have the courage to have a campaign which would match ideas [rather] than see whose consultants can be the nastier." Here are all the anti-Gingrich ads in the past couple weeks that have not shown very much holiday spirit:

"Newt Gingrich: Serial Hypocrisy" Ron Paul has spent $1.1 million on TV ads in Iowa. He's also gotten more than a million hits on two of his attack ads about Gingrich -- the most-viewed videos for a candidate whose fans are Internet-savvy and love sharing videos of Paul talking his issues.  This spot, which has almost 900,000 views, shows Gingrich backing all kinds of lefty ideas like environmentalism and Freddie Mac and health care mandates.

"Newt Gingrich: Selling Access" Another spot from Paul, with 300,000 views, paints Gingrich as someone who sold influence in Washington -- and whose principles were for sale.

"Plan" The Huffington Post's Elise Foley reports attack ads aired by the pro-Romney superPAC Restore Our Future are sticking in Iowans' minds. This one suggests President Obama is dying to run against Gingrich because of all Gingrich's "baggage."

"Happy" Also aired by the Romney super PAC, this spot desribes Gingrich as someone who "cashed in" on the housing crisis and -- for social issues-focused Iowans -- backed China's "brutal one-child policy." It cites a National Review unendorsement of Newt.

"Rick Perry: Outsider" Rick Perry's ad offers a glancing blow to Gingrich: "Replacing one Washington insider with another won't change a thing."

"Problem/Solution" Getting much more explicit, this spot from Perry calls Gingrich and Romney "political insiders" and says Gingrich oversaw huge increases in the debt ceiling and "billions in new earmarks."