See the ‘Brutal’ Anti-Perry Attack Ad the Romney Campaign Mysteriously Pulled

There's an interesting story brewing after Mitt Romney's campaign posted an attack advertisement on YouTube and then later removed it.

The ad, which focuses on Texas Gov. Rick Perry, is characterized by Gawker's Max Read as "personal and direct" -- an accurate description to say the least.

The short video doesn't contain a stitch of anything that is favorable to Perry's speaking abilities, intelligence or preparedness. Clearly, lambasting each of these areas was the Romney campaign's goal, as the video concludes by asking, "Is he ready to lead? "HotAir.com's Allah Pundit describes the clip as follows:

It’s a symphony of Gump-ishness. Being a bad debater, while problematic in the general election, doesn’t disqualify you from being the nominee; being an idiot in general does. That’s the lesson. Offhand, I can’t remember ever seeing an ad like this that’s aimed not at showing that an opponent is stupid about a particular issue but that he’s stupid in general.

While the ad has been taken down, CNN ran a version of it during one of its shows. In it, various clips of Perry's less-than-stellar debate performances are knitted together along with news reports that lambast the governor:

Read contends that it's a bit odd that the Romney campaign would be focusing on Perry, considering that the Texas governor's campaign is weak at the moment.

However, Romney's heated exchange with Perry at the Republican debate this week surrounding Romney's hiring of illegal immigrants may have served as a catalyst for the ad. Erick Erickson shares his views on the making of the ad (his comments were posted before it was pulled by the Romney campaign):

This is a necessary attack from Mitt Romney. Had he not pushed something out like this, the story would be that Mitt Romney got wounded last night. In several unscripted, unguarded moments he mentioned he failed to keep costs down in Massachusetts and was worried about illegals working for him because he was running for political office.

But this doesn't explain why the campaign would post, then remove the ad. ThinkProgress has been promoting the ad and its removal via social media:

Allah Pundit does note that some ads are pulled temporarily, especially when they utilize video footage that may be called into question due to copyright. While he suggests that it's possible the clip is being re-edited because of this, if it was, indeed, yanked, he says it is "a total embarrassment."