Apparently there is a learning curve in 21st century American politics. The camp of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, in a politically smart and in terms of values humane move, has pulled negative ads aimed at former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum that were skedded to air in the upcoming primary battle. The reason: Santorum is spending the day to tend to his ailing child:
Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign is pulling its negative ads in Pennsylvania as Rick Santorum took Monday off from campaigning to spend the day with his young daughter, who is in the hospital.
“We have done this out of deference to Sen. Santorum’s decision to suspend his campaign for personal family reasons,” Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in an email.
Mr. Santorum’s three-year-old daughter Bella, who has a genetic condition, was hospitalized Friday.
The negative spot has been pulled until further notice, Romney aides said Monday morning. Mr. Santorum’s campaign has said the candidate plans to return to the campaign trail Tuesday.
After previously debating how much of an effort to make in Mr. Santorum’s political home state, Mr. Romney’s campaign appeared to go all in when it purchased $2.9 million of TV advertising time, according to a person close to the campaign. Referencing Mr. Santorum’s 2006 defeat at the hands of Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, the negative ad asks Pennsylvania voters, “We fired him as senator. Why promote him to president?” according to a copy obtained by Politico.
In its place, the Romney campaign has inserted a sunny spot promoting Mr. Romney…..
It’s easy to dismiss this as “oh, it’s just politics,” but Romney would take a lot of heat if he was obliterating Santorum while the former Senator sees his daughter. So Romney and Co. deserve credit where credit is due. And they deserve credit here.
Of course, Bella could be released today...and the negative ads will resume. But that would be back to normal and applause for recognizing when something isn’t norma.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.