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The race to pick a Republican who will take on President Barack Obama in November 2012 was always going to have a negative streak as the candidates try to bump front-runner Mitt Romney from the top spot – and as Mr. Romney's supporters try to protect his lead.

Mr. Romney won the Iowa caucus vote on January 3rd by a mere eight votes. In New Hampshire on Tuesday, he won with a more decisive 39 percent of the votes.

The televised debates are a natural place for candidates to deliver their well-honed line of attack against their rivals.

But nothing does it like a TV attack ad financed and produced by the various 'super political action committees,' or super PACs, that support various candidates.

Super PACs have emerged as important players in the race to lead the GOP because they allow groups to raise unlimited money and they face few restrictions compared to a candidate's own political action committee, or PAC.

According to ad buying data shown to the Associated Press, the most money spent on campaign and super PAC ads was in Iowa: $13-million ahead of the caucuses. In New Hampshire: over $5-million.

As candidates head to the next primary in South Carolina on January 21st, where candidates are expecting to make a decisive anti-Romney stand, here are the various lines of attack each candidate can expect:

Line of attack on Mitt Romney

The former Massachusetts governor who made a lot of money leading the investment firm Bain Capital and received kudos for his management of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City faced what one news organization described as the "weekend from hell." Back-to-back televised debates just days ahead of the New Hampshire primary vote meant a gang-up on the front-runner was inevitable.

But Mr. Romney escaped relatively unscathed on Saturday night, and Sunday morning's debate produced a few tangles - with Newt Gingrich blasting his "pious baloney" line across Mr. Romney's bow.

Mr. Romney has been called a "flip-flopper", a "chameleon", and a "Massachusetts moderate" whose economic policy is "timid" and "virtually identical to Obama's failed policy." But the line of attack on Mr. Romney has intensified: as our Washington correspondent reports, with a Newt Gingrich super PAC purchasing a short 28-minute film that attacks Mr. Romney's track record in business and his claim to have created over 100,000 jobs. An ad that is described as a trailer to the film will be aired in South Carolina where the GOP race heads next.

The ad leaves little doubt about the line of attack: Mr. Romney's business leadership was, in fact, the behaviour of a "corporate raider" whose actions resulted in the loss of jobs and suffering. It was, the ad alleges, a display of ruthlessness worse than anything on Wall Street.

Having a GOP presidential hopeful with considerable business experience will be attractive to voters looking for a president who can fix the ailing U.S. economy.

However, expect GOP candidates to step up their attack on Mr. Romney's business record. The last-minute barrage of attacks on Mr. Romney ahead of New Hampshire did not change the outcome of the New Hampshire primary, but that does not mean it will stop candidates from pursuing the same line of attack in South Carolina. Mr. Gingrich has already questioned whether "on balance, were people better off or worse off by this [Mr. Romney's]style of management." That's Mr. Gingrich putting it very nicely.

Line of attack on Newt Gingrich

Remember the ad that compared Mitt Romney's economic plan to President Obama's, claiming that the two are virtually identical?

That line of attack against the "Massachusetts moderate" was led by Newt Gingrich following Mr. Gingrich's Iowa caucus loss.

A pro-Romney super PAC hit back with its own ad, arguing that, "On issue after issue Newt Gingrich and Obama have so much in common – the right choice is to choose neither."

It's pretty tit-for-tat stuff and unlikely to cause the kind of damage the same pro-Romney super PAC inflicted on Mr. Gingrich in December.

Back then, Mr. Gingrich was riding high – even topping – the polls for several weeks.

Mr. Gingrich's numbers plummeted in large part because of a sustained, well-financed campaign of attack ads funded by a pro-Romney super political action committee called Restore Our Future.

"You know what makes Barack Obama happy?" the narrator asks in the attack ad. "Newt Gingrich's baggage. Newt has more baggage than the airlines."

Mr. Gingrich complained about the attack ads during the campaign, and as the results came in on election night in Iowa, he told supporter: "We survived the biggest onslaught in the history of the Iowa primary."

The baggage: Mr. Gingrich's very lucrative work as a Washington consultant, his ethics reprimand, and his co-sponsorship of legislation with Democrat politician Nancy Pelosi.

Line of attack on Rick Santorum

The benefit of trailing the pack until a week or so before the January 3rd Iowa caucus is that – for better or worse – no one bothers to pick on you.

But when you place second, as a result of a last-minute surge, you are now officially in the company of the front-runners and have earned a proper line of attack.

The attack on Mr. Santorum follows, more or less, the broad outlines of the line of attack on Mr. Gingrich by the Ron Paul and Mitt Romney campaigns: he is a former paid corporate lobbyist, a Washington politician whose choices led to increased national debt and big government, and generally a politician of questionable ethics and reputation.

Mr. Santorum has a "black belt in hypocrisy," says the attack ad from the Ron Paul campaign.

Mr. Santorum has come under attack for his role in 'earmarks,' or pet projects that politicians often push to be included in budget bills.

Senator John McCain, the GOP presidential candidate in 2008 who endorsed Mr. Romney last week, criticized Mr. Santorum. "Earmarks are the gateway to corruption," Mr. McCain said. "Rick Santorum sponsored earmark after earmark."

For a more humorous line of attack on Mr. Santorum, this super PAC supporting Ron Paul, released a parody of the former Pennsylvania senator shortly after his eight-vote loss to Mr. Romney on January 3rd. "I lost because the Iowa caucuses were infiltrated by extremist Islamic jihadists," says the actor playing Mr. Santorum.

Line of attack on Ron Paul

The Texas congressman, and arguably the most maverick GOP candidate running, witnessed a swell of support in Iowa, where he finished third. He finished second behind Mr. Romney in New Hampshire with nearly 23 percent of the vote.

His success in the polls, his unorthodox views on the economy – for instance, a zero per cent income tax rate for American – and his belief that U.S. military presence worldwide is no longer sustainable and that troops should be brought home immediately has made him a target.

Mr. Santorum delivered this line of attack during a televised debate on the eve of the New Hampshire primary: "The problem with Congressman Paul is, all the things that Republicans like about him he can't accomplish and all the things they're worried about, he'll do Day One."

But perhaps one of the sharpest line of attacks has come from questions by journalists about a series of newsletters from the 1990s with racial overtones that have been associated with Mr. Paul.

The question came up again during the Saturday night debate in New Hampshire, and this time Mr. Paul side-stepped the question, choosing instead to focus on one his heroes Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his "libertarian principle of peaceful resistance."

He also spoke of the racism in the U.S. judicial system when it comes to drug laws and the disproportionate arrests, imprisonment and death penalties given to black Americans.

Line of attack on Jon Huntsman

The former Utah governor and U.S. ambassador to China, appointed by President Barack Obama no less, pinned his bid to become the GOP presidential candidate on his showing in New Hampshire. He finished in 3rd place with 17 percent of the vote, with what he described as one of the three tickets out of New Hampshire to South Carolina.

The massive New Hampshire surge that Mr. Huntsman expected never really materialized. It will be interesting to see how his respectable New Hampshire showing helps his poll numbers in South Carolina (if at all). Most recent polls put him in last place in South Carolina.

Which makes any attack on Mr. Huntsman at any stage all the more puzzling. Except that is exactly what front-runner Mr. Romney did on the eve of New Hampshire – issuing a direct attack on Mr. Huntsman's role as U.S. ambassador to China.

"You were, the last two years, implementing the policies of this administration in China," Mr. Romney said to Mr. Huntsman during a televised debate.

Mr. Huntsman responded to the criticism during the follow-up televised debate the next day.

"He criticized me, while he was out raising money, for serving my country in China, yes, under a Democrat, like my two sons are doing in the United States Navy," Mr. Huntsman said.

"They're not asking who – what political affiliation the president is. I want to be very clear with the people here in New Hampshire and this country: I will always put my country first."

The line of attack on Mr. Huntsman took an unusual twist last week when a Ron Paul supporter posted a video questioning whether the Mandarin-speaking Mr. Huntsman was, in fact, a 'Manchurian' candidate.

Mr. Hunstman called the video "stupid" and objected to the video's use of images of his two little girls who were both adopted, one from China and the other from India.

Line of attack on Rick Perry

The Texas governor entered the GOP race the same August weekend Michele Bachmann won the Ames Iowa straw poll.

He was for a time in the autumn the alternative to Mitt Romney, and the polls reflected it.

In New Hampshire, he finished with one per cent of the vote. He is polling five per cent in South Carolina where the GOP contest moves for the January 21st primary.

When a GOP candidate is hitting those kinds of poll numbers, he is unlikely to be the focus of attack ads.

But here are some interesting facts about Mr. Perry: he still has money to see his campaign through South Carolina, and, according to Associated Press, of the $3.1-million in ads purchased already ahead of the South Carolina primary more than half of that money has been spent by a pro-Perry super PAC, Make Us Great Again. So expect Mr. Perry's supporters to be driving the attack in South Carolina, most likely against Mr. Romney.

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