By Patrick O’Connor and Sara Murray 
 
 Mitt Romney is finally getting a little personal. 
 
 The play-it-safe former Massachusetts governor is releasing a new ad in New Hampshire this week in which he talks about his 42-year marriage to his wife, Ann – a not-so-subtle swipe at his top competition, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is currently married to his third wife. 
 
 “I think people understand that I’m a man of steadiness and constancy,” Mr. Romney tells the audience at a recent candidates’ debate. “I’ve been married to the same woman for 25 – excuse me, I’ll get in trouble — for 42 years. I’ve been in the same church my entire life. I worked at one company, Bain, for 25 years. And I left that to go off and help save the Olympics.” 
 
 The ad paints the candidate as a consummate family man. His remarks at the debate are overlaid with old, home-movie footage of a much younger Mr. Romney with his wife and kids. “If I’m president of the United States, I will be true to my family, to my faith and to our country,” he says. 
 
 Mr. Romney is often accused of inconsistency, but some supporters have recently started to complain that the vacillating former Massachusetts governor has become too rigid in his current White House bid by focusing his attention entirely on President Barack Obama and failing to talk about anything beyond his business record. 
 
 This spot allows him to hit the consistency theme – which remains a liability heading into the early nominating contests – while showing a softer, more personal side. It comes on the heels of a Parade Magazine interview in which Mr. Romney talked about his family and his father’s influence on his political career. 
 
 The ad also makes an obvious distinction between the former Massachusetts governor and Mr. Gingrich, whose own political history is more erratic than Mr. Romney’s. But instead of hitting Mr. Gingrich head-on, Mr. Romney has begun highlighting the pieces of his biography that diverge (as least in the campaign’s view) from Mr. Gingrich’s. 
 
 That strategy was on full display at the Republican Jewish Coalition forum Wednesday, where Mr. Romney highlighted his more than four decade marriage and his experience in the business community. 
 
 “I’m not a creature of Washington. I’m a creature of the private sector. I’m a business guy,” Mr. Romney said. “I don’t have a political career.” 
 
 Of course, that’s not true. Mr. Romney is the former governor of Massachusetts and has been actively campaigning for the White House since 2006. But even that resume is a far cry from Mr. Gingrich’s 20 years spent in Congress or the millions the former House speaker earned advising companies on how to navigate politics inside the Beltway. ||||| Here's the ten millionth consecutive miserable Rick Perry ad to run in Iowa, titled "Strong." Let's make fun of it line by line, shall we? 
 
 I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm a Christian... 
 
 It is December 7, Rick Perry. Time's running out. If you want to say "Mitt Romney is a sneaky fucking Mormon" to the evangelicals, then just say it outright. No one likes an encoder. 
 
 ...but you don't need to be in the pew every Sunday to know there's something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can't openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school. 
 
 A perfect contrast: How can (a) people known to be sexually attracted to members of their own gender be allowed to serve in the United States military at the same time that (b) some schools won't let children pray to Santa Claus? Why are some things allowed to happen in some places but other things can't happen in other places? Y'all don't even have an answer. 
 
 As President, I'll end Obama's war on religion. 
 
 He most likely isn't referring to the ongoing American military action in seven or so Muslim countries. 
 
 And I'll fight against liberal attacks on our religious heritage. 
 
 He'll troll the comments sections of some obnoxious liberal blogs, got it. 
 
 Faith made America strong. It can make her strong again. 
 
 3.79 million square miles of untapped natural resources and broad access to two oceans made America strong. My apologies, sorry, yes, faith too. Anyway, whatever it is that She needs now probably doesn't involve Rick Perry. ||||| Like the Higgs Boson, Rick Perry’s latest ad must be seen to be believed. But I’m somewhat relieved that the Higgs Boson might exist. This ad just fills me with despair, the kind of despair I only get when someone forces me to sing all 12 verses of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” with hand gestures. 
 
 Even after you’ve seen it once, you think, “No. Surely this is a parody.” 
 
 It scrapes the bottom of the demagogue barrel, somehow managing to invoke the dubious menace of Gays in the Military, the War on Christmas, and the need for Faith to Rebuild this Great Nation — in fewer than thirty seconds. The only way it might possibly be worse would be if it referenced the brainwashing Muppets. 
 
 Here’s the text: 
 
 “I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m a Christian,” the Texas governor says. “But you don’t need to be in the pew every Sunday to know there’s something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school. 
 
 “As president, I’ll end Obama’s war on religion. And I’ll fight against liberal attacks on our religious heritage. Faith made America strong. It can make her strong again.” 
 
 First, those Muppets indoctrinate them. Then, our kids get to school and the gay soldiers of Barack Obama prevent them from celebrating Christmas. It’s abominable. 
 
 Teachers are even telling them not to believe in Santa. 
 
 Anyone who wants to celebrate Christmas in Barack Obama’s repressive culture had better watch out and better not cry, because he is monitoring you. If someone sees a child celebrating that Holiday That Shall Not Be Named, Barack Obama will come sap their initiative and force their families to become dependent on welfare! At least that is what Rick Perry implies. 
 
 Barack Obama hates Christmas, the whole Christmas season. He won’t let you sing any carols, except for the one that includes “gay apparel.” 
 
 Christmas break? Unheard of. Christmas pageants? Nowhere in sight. There is no White House Christmas Tree. There is the White House Generic Seasonal Pine. 
 
 At recess, a few daring believers sneak into the Christmas Closet, where they hang tinsel and sing “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” But if someone reports them to Barack Obama, he swoops down on their school and forces them to enjoy kale and write “Oil Tycoons Are Naughty Men” on the board a dozen times. 
 
 Not only that, but our kids can’t pray in schools! No wonder we’re doing so badly on standardized tests — unassisted by institutionalized prayer, what hope do we have? Other nations are vastly outpacing us in Reading Comprehension, Critical Thinking, and the all-important category of Ability to Accept Jesus as Your Lord and Savior, second only to Math skills in terms of what employers look for from recent graduates. This is not what the Founders had in mind when they explicitly said that thing in the Constitution about an establishment of religion. Something about making no law — it doesn’t matter. 
 
 “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof?” 
 
 See, that’s exactly the kind of obnoxious fact your kids pick up if they don’t spend enough time in the classroom praying. 
 
 Rick Perry understands what’s important. Learning the names of cabinet departments or honing debating skills? Please. What is this, a state without an established Christian religion? 
 
 Faith has made America strong. It’s time to put it back where it belongs, in the classroom. Thanks to Barack Obama, children these days are lost and adrift, lacking any sense of what Christmas is or what schools are for: praying and celebrating Christmas. 
 
 But Rick Perry understands the importance of prayer. 
 
 I’d be more worried if I thought his campaign still had one. 
 
 Is there really a ‘war on Christmas?’ Rabbi Brad Hirshfield and other readers live chatted about the topic Thursday. Read the chat transcript.
– To say that Rick Perry's new campaign ad is eliciting some strong reactions may be a bit of an understatement. In the Washington Post, Alexandra Petri writes that the ad—which "must be seen to be believed"—fills her "with despair" and "scrapes the bottom of the demagogue barrel" as it invokes the gay menace, the importance of faith in making our nation great, and the war on Christmas. "If someone sees a child celebrating that Holiday That Shall Not Be Named, Barack Obama will come sap their initiative and force their families to become dependent on welfare! At least that is what Rick Perry implies," Petri writes. She's not the only one upset: Jezebel calls the ad "unbelievably bigoted," while Gawker sticks with "miserable" and "most terrible." Meanwhile, Mitt Romney is finally getting dirty—sort of. His latest ad takes a "not-so-subtle swipe" at thrice-married Newt Gingrich, write Patrick O'Connor and Sara Murray in the Wall Street Journal, as Romney touts his 42-year marriage. Without mentioning Gingrich by name, Romney manages to convey that he "is a family man," while Gingrich, "well, isn't," writes Chris Cillizza in the Washington Post. Of course, it may not matter—as Cillizza points out, Gingrich's previously stormy personal life hasn't appeared to sway voters. That may be in part because the controversy in question—an extramarital affair—happened so long ago, many aren't even aware of it. Watch both ads in the gallery or click for a Romney ad that features OJ Simpson or a Ron Paul ad blasting Gingrich.