Rick Perry has a Christmas present for the country – a new campaign ad!

Remember this gem from a few weeks ago?  Unfortunately, this new one doesn’t feature nearly as much Rick, but it features a new star – Anita Perry!

The ad has Anita telling the couple’s good ol’ American story – how they married after being high school sweethearts, lived the small-town life, and always upheld those good Christian values.  And then POP goes the Rick Perry, who jumps up behind Anita to say “BOO!” to declare that he “really approve[s] this ad!”

Perry’s new ad isn’t the only Republican spot starring a candidate’s wife vouching for her husband values and character.  The Romney campaign also introduced a new ad Character starring Ann Romney.

Mrs. Romney explains that

I think that’s why it’s so important to understand the character of the person.  To me that makes a huge difference.  Maybe some voters it doesn’t, but for me it makes a huge difference.

The ad also features some pretty precious old Romney family photos in which Mitt’s sporting locks a bit longer than we’ve seen recently.

Both of these ads are not so subtly attacking the other GOP front-runner – Newt Gingrich.  Gingrich is considered to have some values/character/wife issues.  Newt has been married thrice, left his first wife while she was in the hospital, and cheated on his second wife with his future third one while he was leading the impeachment effort against President Clinton during the Lewinsky affair.

And if he didn’t have enough problems, an online dating service that caters to married men and women looking to have an affair has rolled out an advertising campaign featuring…you guessed it!  Newt!

So what do you think?  Will Newt’s sordid past affect his presidential bid?  Are Romney and Perry’s new ads part of an effective strategy to appeal to the conservative, family values Republican base?