“Mitt Romney is depicted as a financier ‘more ruthless than Wall Street’ and a son of privilege responsible for laying off thousands of workers in a 28-minute film set to be released tomorrow in South Carolina bankrolled by supporters of Newt Gingrich.

“The film, obtained by Bloomberg News, attacks Romney’s record as the chief executive officer of Bain Capital LLC, a private-equity firm. It highlights the stories of workers who lost their jobs after the companies they worked for were acquired by Bain.

“‘Make a profit,’ a laughing Romney is shown saying in the film. ‘That’s what it’s all about, right?'”

“Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign may be going down in flames, but he’s determined to burn GOP presidential front-runner Mitt Romney as badly as he can before the crash. He could singe his future standing within his own party while he’s at it…

“In a blog post titled ‘Kamikaze Newt,’ Republican strategist John Feehery wrote, ‘Gingrich, the man who in many ways invented the modern warfare tactic of negative campaigning, is obviously furious that Mitt Romney carpet bombed him in Iowa. Knowing that he has no chance of winning the nomination, Gingrich is now doing everything he can to sink Romney’s ship. … Newt is mad, very mad, and when Newt gets mad, he gets stupid. And his efforts to bring down Romney on personal grounds are not only counterproductive for the party, they are counterproductive for Newt.’…

“An aggressive Gingrich push in South Carolina could attract conservative voters away from Romney. But it could also backfire for Gingrich by splitting the conservative vote between Gingrich and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, which could have the effect of increasing Romney’s lead, who is stronger among the party’s moderates and independents who lean Republican.”

“As Mitt Romney seeks to build on his wins in Iowa and New Hampshire, a near-panic has taken hold among some core conservative activists who are now scrambling to devise a strategy to deny him the Republican presidential nomination.

“Many of these activists see South Carolina’s primary on Jan. 21 as their last best hope of stopping Romney by consolidating in a united front against him, but many acknowledge that they have yet to figure out which of the remaining conservative rivals to rally behind and which should get out.

“Matt Kibbe, president of the pro-tea-party group FreedomWorks, said his organization has a super PAC that has raised about $2 million and could inject itself into the race to push a yet-undeclared candidate, such as Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who is backing a weakened Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

“Kibbe noted that the qualifying periods for many later primary races will remain open for weeks — and that a new candidate could attract enough support to provoke a contested convention.

“‘In this more decentralized process, if Romney continues to create this vacuum by not consolidating 30 to 40 percent, the vacuum has to be filled,’ Kibbe said. ‘If Newt or Santorum can’t do it, somebody’s going to do it.'”

“Mitt Romney now has his opponents by the throat. When you have your opponent by the throat in presidential politics, you best finish the job. For Romney, that means imitating Atwater and going all in on South Carolina.

“The alternative is to play some imagined ‘long game’ and “husband the campaign’s resources” for a ‘national — all 50 states — campaign.’

“F*** that.

“The longer this thing goes on, the more likely it is that some kind of coalition comes together around someone who is ‘not-Romney.’ Kill that before it is born and the nomination is Romney’s by the end of the month. That means ‘all in’ on South Carolina. That’s what Atwater did. That’s what Boston should do.”

“I think Romney’s going to win here.”

Via Fox News Insider.