It's clear that the Republican elite no longer wants to see this nomination contest drag on any longer. Sought after endorsers such as Paul Ryan and Marco Rubio have finally lent their support to Romney, and on Sunday Senator Ron Johnson said that he had been selected by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to coordinate the message between the Romney campaign and Senate Republicans. The early calls for Santorum's departure will become an avalanche if, as largely expected, Romney runs up the delegate score in tonight's primaries.
You know who else seems ready to put this primary campaign behind him? None other than Romney's general election opponent Barack Obama. The president's reelection campaign has been gearing up to face Romney all year, and, at certain moments, have injected themselves into the Republican primary to pester Romney while he was still fending off Santorum or another conservative challenger. Now they're going a step further and running an ad against Romney in a handful of swing states.
The ad-set to run in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, Ohio, and Virginia-starts by raising the specter of "big oil" attacks on Obama before subtly shifting to tie Romney into that mindset. "In all these fights, Mitt Romney stood with big oil, for their tax breaks, attacking higher mileage standards and renewables" the ads' narrator says ominously. In a press release alongside the ad, the Obama campaign notes that Romney's 2012 bid has raised $754,400 From oil & gas interests.
The commercial is a preview for the tone the Obama campaign will try to set for the fall campaign. At every opportunity, they will try to paint Romney as someone sided with the moneyed interests of his Bain days as opposed to normal voters. As Romney keeps accepting countless funds from business it will be an easy line for more ads down the road.
